Calvaria continues to race through its presale and is now into stage 4 of 10 and quickly heading towards the landmark figure of $1.5 million.
With each presale stage seeing a large increase in the price of the native RIA token, investors are acting fast to invest in the rapidly-growing GameFi project.
Stage 4 tokens are on sale for $0.025 but stage 5 will see that increase to $0.03 and by stage 10 tokens will cost $0.055 each.
Calvaria Racing Through Presale
Calvaria will sell 30% – 300 million – of its max 1 billion supply of RIA tokens during the presale phase, with the price seeing a 450% increase from the first stage to the 10th and final stage.
While investors may have missed those big gains, tokens bought in stage 4 will still see a massive increase of 120% before the token is even listed on exchanges.
Each stage has an allocation of just 30 million tokens and the presale has a hard cap of $9.75 million, with presale tokens having no vesting period after the presale ends.
The project has already agreed on partnerships with major tier-one centralized exchanges KuCoin and Gate.io following the presale.
A large amount of the remaining token allocation is taken up by the staking pool (25%) and the prize pool (20%).
A further 8% will be reserved for operations and 6% for the Initial NFT Offering (INO), with the remaining allocation split between the team (5%) – which is fully doxxed and KYC-verified – liquidity (4%), and advisors (2%).
The project is also offering investors a $100,000 giveaway during the presale, paid out in RIA and shared between three winners – $70k for the winner, $20k for second place, and $10k for third.
To take part, investors must hold $100 of RIA on the day of the draw and can gain up to 155 entries by taking part in tasks such as following the project on Twitter and joining the Discord server.
Calvaria is exciting investors because not only is it building in the high-potential GameFi sector but because the developers have a clear plan to attract casual and traditional gamers to the ecosystem.
While other blockchain gaming projects are struggling to attract players, Calvaria has identified two major obstacles for more players switching to Web3, making it one of the best gaming crypto projects of the year.
Indeed, games such as Decentraland and The Sandbox had a combined 20,000 players in October – despite each boasting market caps over $1 billion – while Axie Infinity is now attracting only 200,000 per month having peaked at nearly 3 million in November 2021.
The first obstacle is prohibitive costs – such as playable NFTs or tokens – stopping players from playing, and the second is the lack of technical knowledge can be intimidating for some.
Calvaria will solve both of those issues with a free-to-play (F2P) version of its flagship game Duels of Eternity, a battle-card strategy.
Players will be able to play the full game totally for free, without the need for NFTs or tokens and without any blockchain knowledge.
Calvaria believes the strength of the game alone will be enough to attract players, while it will entice players along by adding a visible tracker – that shows how much a player could have won if playing the play-to-earn (P2E) version – and by adding gamified educational quests that help players learn about the blockchain.
The game, set in the afterlife, sees players select one of three warring factions that have particular traits and skills – players fight in one-on-one battles, stacking their decks and using skill, knowledge, and boosters to win matches.
There is also a full single-player campaign mode where players can earn cards and assets that are usable in other game modes.
In the P2E version, players will be rewarded with in-game currency eRIA, which can then be used to buy more powerful cards, upgrades, and other assets.
Cards will be fully owned as NFTs and can be bought and sold on the free market.
Like major Web2 games Fortnite, Apex Legends, and others, Calvaria will adopt a seasonal approach to Duels of Eternity with expansions, new cards, and upgrades regularly available and changing throughout the year.
Later in 2023, Calvaria will also develop an in-house eSports team and plans to host eSports tournaments with major prize pools around the game.
The market is currently in a news-driven environment where the prices of cryptocurrencies have been determined by news agenda rather than fundamentals.
Bitfinex analysts have warned crypto investors to be cautious as bitcoin’s (BTC) recovery over the weekend is not a sign that its correction is over; the asset could witness more bloodshed in the near term.
In the latest Bitfinex Alpha report, experts deemed the market’s reaction this week critical, especially as supply alleviated over the weekend could return when traditional markets open.
“No Man’s Land”
Since Saturday, bitcoin has risen almost 10% from $57,600 to $63,000, closing last week in the green. The asset has surged above the 125-day range low of $60,200, which it broke through earlier this month after news of the German government’s massive BTC selling hit the market.
Market sentiment began to improve after reports that wallets linked to the German government were almost empty. However, the positive sentiment may not be sustained for long as the BTC the German authorities moved to trading desks and exchanges are yet to be sold.
While the supply from Germany appears to have been factored into bitcoin’s market price, Bitfinex analysts believe the end of selling pressure depends on how the involved trading desks execute their trades in the coming days.
Although the shift in sentiment underscores the market’s capacity to integrate new information and adjust expectations quickly, analysts think the market’s reaction over the first two trading days of the week cannot be overlooked for two reasons.
First, the low support level in the $60,200 range has now become a potential resistance line. Second, trading patterns over the past three months suggest that weekends are usually favorable for markets, especially on Saturdays when supply pressure seems to subside.
“We are now in no man’s land until we get clear resolution above or below this level,” the analysts said.
A News-Driven Environment
Besides the potential resistance level and three-month weekend trading pattern, the market is currently in a news-driven environment, where the prices of cryptocurrencies have been determined by news agendas rather than fundamentals.
Since selling pressure concerns are not yet completely obsolete due to upcoming Mt Gox creditor distributions, Bitfinex analysts expect such headlines to continue to have some impact on price movements. As such, the analysts urged investors to exercise caution in their trading strategies.
BlackRock’s IBIT led with $117.25 million in inflows on July 15, also being the most traded Bitcoin ETF.
The US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a daily net inflow of $301 million on July 15th. This extended their winning streak to seven consecutive days amidst a broader market recovery.
None of the ETFs recorded outflows for the day.
Bitcoin ETFs Rake in $16.11B in Net Inflows Since Jan
According to the data compiled by SoSoValue, BlackRock’s IBIT, the top spot Bitcoin ETF by net asset value, recorded the largest net inflows of the day at $117.25 million. IBIT was also the most actively traded Bitcoin ETF on Monday, with a volume of $1.24 billion. Ark Invest and 21Shares’ ARKB came in close behind with net inflows of $117.19 million.
Fidelity’s FBTC experienced net inflows of $36.15 million on Monday, while Bitwise’s BITB saw $15.24 million in inflows. VanEck’s HODL, Invesco and Galaxy Digital’s BTCO, and Franklin Templeton’s EZBC funds also recorded net inflows. Meanwhile, Grayscale’s GBTC and other ETFs, such as Valkyrie’s BRRR, WisdomTree’s BTCW, and Hashdex’s DEFI, registered no flows for the day.
A total of $2.26 billion was traded on Monday. The trading volume for these ETFs was less than in March when it exceeded $8 billion on some days. Meanwhile, these funds have collectively attracted $16.11 billion in net inflow since their January launch.
What’s Next For Bitcoin?
Earlier this month, bitcoin’s price decline was mainly due to fears of massive selling pressure from Mt. Gox and the German government’s BTC sales.
But the assassination attempt on pro-crypto former US President and presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump at Saturday’s rally seemed to spark a recovery in the world’s largest digital asset, and experts are bullish on the asset’s price trajectory going forward. Bitcoin surged more than 9% over the past week and was currently trading slightly below $64,000.
Veteran trader Peter Brandt discussed bitcoin’s price outlook, suggesting a potential major rally. He referred to a pattern he terms “Hump->Slump->Bump->Dump->Pump” and highlighted that the July 5 double top attempt was a bear trap, confirmed by the July 13 close. He sees a likely continued upward trend but warned that a close below $56,000 would negate this bullish view.
“Bitcoin $BTC could be unfolding its often-repeated Hump…Slump…Bump…Dump…Pump chart construction. Jul 5 attempt at the double top was a bear trap, confirmed by Jul 13 close. Most likely scenario now is that bears are trapped. Close below $56k negates this interpretation”
PeckShield alert reveals LI.FI’s protocol vulnerability is similar to a March 2022 attack, with the same bug recurring.
The decentralized finance (DeFi) platform LI.FI protocol has suffered an exploit amounting to over $8 million.
Cyvers Alerts reported detecting suspicious transactions within the LI.FI cross-chain transaction aggregator.
LI.FI Issues Warning After $8 Million Exploit
LI.FI confirmed the breach in a statement on July 16 via X: “Please do not interact with any http://LI.FI powered applications for now! We’re investigating a potential exploit.” The team clarified that users who did not set infinite approval are not at risk, emphasizing that only those who manually set infinite approvals seem to be affected.
According to Cyvers Alerts, more than $8 million in user funds have been stolen, with the majority being stablecoins. According to on-chain data, the hacker’s wallet holds 1,715 Ether (ETH) valued at $5.8 million and USDC, USDT, and DAI stablecoins.
Cyvers Alerts advised users to revoke relevant authorizations immediately, noting that the attacker is actively converting USDC and USDT into ETH.
Crypto security firm Decurity provided insights into the exploit, stating that it involves the LI.FI bridge. “The root cause is a possibility of an arbitrary call with user-controlled data via depositToGasZipERC20() in GasZipFacet, which was deployed 5 days ago,” Decurity explained on X.
“In general, the risks behind routers, cross-chain swaps, etc. are about token approvals. Raw native assets like (unwrapped) ETH are safe from these kinds of hacks b/c they don’t have approvals as an option. Most users & wallets also no longer do “infinite approvals” which gives a smart contract total control on removing any amount of their tokens. It’s important to understand which tokens you’re approving to which contracts.
This dashboard looks for all transactions of a user that intersects Lifi. Not all of these transactions indicate risk- but you can see how, broadly, integrations & layers of tech (like how Metamask bridge uses Lifi on BSC) can complicate how users do or don’t put their assets at risk. Revoke Cash is the most well known approval manager app.
But it’s also good security practice to simply rotate your address. New addresses start with 0 approvals, so starting fresh by moving your tokens to a fresh address is another good security practice.” – commented Carlos Mercado, Data Scientist at Flipside Crypto.
Recent Exploit Mirrors March 2022 Attack
Further analysis by PeckShield alert revealed that the vulnerability is similar to a previous attack on LI.FI’s protocol that occurred on March 20, 2022. That incident saw a bad actor exploit LI.FI’s smart contract, specifically the swapping feature, before bridging.
The attacker manipulated the system to call token contracts directly within their contract’s context, making users who had given infinite approval vulnerable. This exploit resulted in the theft of approximately 205 ETH from 29 wallets, affecting tokens such as USDC, MATIC, RPL, GNO, USDT, MVI, AUDIO, AAVE, JRT, and DAI.
“The bug is basically the same. Are we learning anything from the past lesson(s)?” PeckShield Alert said in a July 16 X post.
Following the 2022 incident, LI.FI disabled all swap methods in its smart contract and worked on developing a fix to prevent future vulnerabilities. However, the recurrence of a similar exploit raises concerns about the platform’s security measures and whether adequate steps were taken to address the vulnerabilities identified in the previous breach.
LI.FI is a liquidity aggregation protocol that allows users to trade across various blockchains, venues, and bridges.
