Hot new metaverse and NFT project RobotEra has now raced past $100,000 in funding as investors flock to buy its native TARO token during the early presale phase.
TARO only launched last week but has already seen six figures of investment with the price of each token just $0.02, and is one of our best crypto launches of 2022.
In three presale phases, the price will increase by a total of 60% – from $0.02 to $0.025 and then $0.032 – with 270 million tokens on sale and no vesting period for presale tokens.
RobotEra, which is an LBank Labs project and comes from a doxxed and KYC-verified team, is a play-to-earn ecosystem similar to The Sandbox that allows players to earn active and passive income from the game in a variety of ways.
Monetize the Metaverse with RobotEra
In RobotEra, players take the form of Robot NFTs to help rebuild the planet Taro which was destroyed by a cataclysmic event.
While robots grant access to the metaverse, players can buy virtual plots of land – spread across seven continents – and rebuild and monetize it.
Players will need no prior coding knowledge to build upon their metaverse plots, with RobotEra featuring custom tools designed for the game.
It will all players to build anything from infrastructure to houses, swimming pools, and entertainment venues, with the capability to add dynamic 3D scenes, sound, user interaction, physics and more.
Players can earn TARO by participating in events, concerts, and quests, mining resources from their plots of land, charging admission for hosted events, or selling billboard space to advertisers.
In fact, RobotEra’s developers expect new utility, use cases, and revenue streams to emerge over time, with few limitations set on players as they make the world their own.
Players will also be able to build, upgrade and customize robot companions, keeping them for in-game activities or selling them as NFTs on the open market.
TARO tokens can also be staked, which will not only earn passive income but grant stakers voting rights in the DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) to decide how the project moves forward.
The project is also developing virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) functionality for the first half of 2023.
As mentioned above, RobotERa is currently in stage 1 of its three-stage TARO token presale.
TARO is currently on sale for $0.02 but will increase to $0.032 by the third and final stage.
In total, 270 million (15%) of the max 1.8 billion supply are on sale during the presale, with no vesting period on presale tokens and a hard cap of $6.93 million.
The majority of the supply is taken up by the Treasury/DAO (33%), with another 25% taken up by the P2E rewards pool.
The team has been allocated 10% and advisors 3% with those tokens locked for 12 months before being released linearly over the following 20 months.
The ECO fund takes up 9% and a further 3% for liquidity. The final 2% has been reserved for LBank, who were an early institutional investor – 5% of those tokens will be unlocked at the token generation event, with the remaining released linearly at 5% per month.
Investors will first need to download a crypto wallet, such as MetaMask or Trust Wallet.
Both are free, secure, and easy to use.
Step 2: Acquire USDT or ETH
Investors cannot buy TARO with fiat currency, so they will need to hold ETH or USDT in their crypto wallet.
It can be transferred from any exchange, while ETH can be bought directly on both wallets mentioned above.
Investors will need a minimum of $20 worth in their wallet in stage 1 – plus extra for Ethereum gas fees – due to there being a minimum transaction of 1,000 TARO.
Step 3 – Connect Wallet to RobotEra Presale Dashboard
Next, connect the wallet to the RobotEra presale platform by clicking ‘Connect Wallet’ on the website and selecting one of the icons.
A new window will appear, and investors will be asked to enter the login details.
Step 4 – Buy TARO Tokens
Once the wallet has tokens and is connected, select either ‘Buy TARO With ETH’ or ‘Buy TARO with USDT’ and follow the steps.
There is a minimum investment of 1,000 TARO and a small Ethereum transaction (gas) fee will apply.
Step 5 – Claim TARO Tokens
TARO will be stored on the RobotEra website until all presale tokens are sold out.
Investors can then claim their TARO – which has no vesting period – by returning to the RobotEra dashboard after the presale and clicking ‘Claim’.
RobotEra will announce the claiming period on social media at the relevant time.
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.
