Here’s what happened in crypto today

Source: Cointelegraph

A DeFi protocol on the Base blockchain has disappeared without a trace from social media after stealing funds through an unaudited smart contract. The price of Ether has fallen to late January levels as traders await Federal Reserve announcements later this week and Donald Trump dodges a second reported assassination attempt.

Base DeFi project disappears after rug pull

BaseBros Fi, a yield optimization decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol on Base blockchain, disappeared from the internet after stealing its users’ investments through an unaudited smart contract. 

On Sept. 13, BaseBros deleted its official website and social media accounts on X and Telegram. Blockchain security firm Chain Audits, who had previously audited some BaseBros smart contracts, found that the DeFi project orchestrated a rug pull via “an unaudited and unverified Vault contract.”

Source: BaseBrosFi

BaseBros had approximately 2,000 followers on X and over 3,300 members on Telegram right before its disappearance. 

ChainAudits claimed it had audited four of the five smart contracts used in the BaseBros project and added:

“Unfortunately the contract that facilitated the rug pull (Vault Contract) was not included in our audit scope, nor is verified on the blockchain.”

The unaudited contract contained a backdoor vulnerability, allowing the company owners to withdraw funds deposited into the “Strategy” contract. 

ETH falls 6% amid assassination attempt, looming rate cuts, “FUD” wave

The price of Ether tumbled 6% in the last 24 hours amid crypto market jitters, falling from an intraday high of $2,425 on Sept. 15 to bottom out at $2,260 on Sept. 16.

The ETH/BTC ratio is now at its lowest level since April 2021, hitting 0.038 on Sept. 16, according to TradingView.

The price of Ether over the past 24 hours. Source: TradingView

The move comes amid an apparent wave of “FUD” on X, with even analysts and crypto industry observers seemingly jumping on the Ether-bashing bandwagon.

“Half of my feed is ETH FUD at this point,” exclaimed Ethereum developer “antiprosynthesis” in a post on X on Sept. 15.

It also comes at the beginning of a very busy week for the United States, with the Federal Reserve poised to announce a rate cut on Wednesday, Sept. 18.

Brazil’s top prosecutor backs X ban

Brazil’s Attorney General’s Office, known as PGR, has backed the Supreme Court’s ban on social media platform X.

According to the PGR, suspending Elon Musk’s social media platform does not constitute a violation of Brazilian speech laws. The PGR urged the Supreme Court to dismiss lawsuits that seek to reverse the suspension.

As Cointelegraph reported, Brazilian Justice Alexandre de Moraes suspended X on Aug. 30 after the social media company refused to name a local representative, which is required by law. The legal battle erupted after Musk refused to comply with court orders to block accounts accused of spreading misinformation in Brazil.

On Sept. 13, Brazil’s Supreme Court lifted the freeze on bank accounts linked to X and Starlink, another company controlled by Musk. The freeze was lifted after Musk settled roughly 18.35 million Brazilian reais (around $3.3 million) in fines. 

Although the financial penalties have been paid, X remains off-limits for Brazilians.