As per Dune Analytics, cross-chain bridge TVLs have dropped 26.9% in the last month, and there is now $24.40 billion TVL in bridges to Ethereum. The Ronin bridge is the most expensive, costing $6.9 billion, followed by Avalanche ($6.6 billion) and Polygon ($5.6 billion).

Bitmart got hacked, with losses estimated at $196 million.

Bitmart has lost $196 million in multiple cryptocurrencies, making this the most damaging centralized exchange breach to date.

In a tweet, the purported attack was initially brought to light Saturday night by security analysis firm Peckshield. One of Bitmart's addresses is presently showing continuous withdrawals of whole token balances, some worth tens of millions of dollars, to an account branded as the "Bitmart Hacker '' by Etherscan.

Peckshield assessed the damages at $100 million in different cryptocurrencies on the Ethereum blockchain and $96 million on the Binance Smart Chain in a follow-up Twitter post.

The hacker has routinely used decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator 1 inch to exchange stolen assets for cryptocurrency ether (ETH), then depositing the ETH into privacy mixer Tornado Cash using a secondary address making the hijacked money difficult to track.

Bitmart staff first stated that the outflows were "normal withdrawals" on an official Telegram channel, dismissing reports of the hack as "false news."

More than 50% of all Bitcoin investors joined in 2021

With the instability in the virtual currency, interest and demand for Bitcoin increased dramatically in 2021. As per cryptocurrency business Grayscale Investments LLC, more than 50% of existing investors bought in within the previous year.

In a poll of 1,000 respondents, roughly a quarter indicated they had previously purchased Bitcoin, and 55 percent said they had begun investing this year.
The findings highlight the tremendous expansion of cryptocurrencies this year, as investors poured money into the risky asset class, even as supplementary goods such as non-fungible tokens grew in popularity (NFTs).

Following a recent selloff, Bitcoin is up roughly 70% in 2021, but the value of several other tokens, like Ether, has increased fivefold.
"As Bitcoin's value continues to grow, it is becoming more impossible for investors to disregard it," according to the study.

Almost 80% of those questioned in the United States indicated they'd be more inclined to invest in the asset class if a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund arose, a product that has yet to be approved by authorities.

Grayscale has filed to transform its $35 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (ticker GBTC) into a physically-backed ETF, having performed the poll in mid-August. Regulators in the United States have only approved the creation of a futures-based Bitcoin fund so far.

As per Grayscale's poll, investors’ choices for acquiring cryptocurrencies are changing. Over three-quarters of people stated they liked buying Bitcoin on an exchange in 2020, while nearly 60% now claim they love trading via a crypto app like eToro or Coinbase. Just over a third answered they'd rather have an exchange right now.