Hey there, PoI readers! 💫 

It's your favorite ice-cream-named crypto connoisseur, Mochi, serving up another scoop of the hottest web3 headlines! From Polymarket's political pickle and a Bitfinex hacker's change of heart to Tether's spicy WSJ drama and Coinbase's AI adventures - we've got quite the flavor combination today. So grab your digital spoons and let's dive into this delicious sundae of crypto news! 🍨

INTEL BRIEF

🟧 Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan emphasizes the platform's non-partisan stance and broader vision beyond politics, despite its current spotlight in U.S. election forecasting.

🟧 A hacker who stole $20 million from a US government wallet containing seized Bitfinex funds has returned 88% of the stolen assets, amid a broader surge in Q3 2024 crypto security incidents.

🟧 The Wall Street Journal's report of alleged US government investigations into Tether triggered market volatility, while the company strongly denies the claims as "old noise."

🟧 Coinbase launches "Based Agent," a tool allowing users to create AI agents capable of performing various blockchain transactions, amid growing interest in AI-powered crypto interactions.

Polymarket Boss SLAMS Political Label While Election Bets Soar Above Traditional Polls

Polymarket has found itself in quite the interesting position. The crypto prediction markets platform has been thrust into the political spotlight during the lead-up to the U.S. presidential election, but founder Shayne Coplan wants to set the record straight.

In a spicy X post on October 25th, Coplan made it crystal clear that Polymarket was never meant to be your go-to political fortune teller. The platform's true vision? To "harness the power of free markets to demystify the real world events that matter most to you."

But here's where it gets interesting – Coplan is playing Switzerland in the political arena, adamantly denying any political bias. Whether you're team blue or team red, Polymarket is just here for the data, folks! As Coplan humorously points out, they're called "Dem operatives and MAGA, depending on the day" – talk about an identity crisis!

The platform has been getting extra attention lately, especially after Elon Musk gave it his seal of approval, suggesting it might be more reliable than traditional polling since people are putting their money where their mouth is. Speaking of money talks, a recent 20-point lead for Trump over Harris on the platform raised some eyebrows, though Kalshi's Tarek Mansour stepped in to defend the data's authenticity.

Coplan sees politics as more of a gateway drug (the legal kind, of course!) to get people hooked on market-based forecasts. It's like using pumpkin spice to get people into coffee – start with what's trending, then show them there's a whole world of flavors out there!

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Polymarket maintains it's not a political platform, despite its current prominence in election forecasting

The platform claims to be strictly non-partisan, getting labeled both Democrat and Republican-leaning

Politics is viewed as a stepping stone to introduce the public to broader market-based forecasting applications

Mystery Hacker Makes Shocking U Turn By Returning 19.3M To Government Wallet

A hacker who helped themselves to a cool $20 million from Uncle Sam's crypto wallet has had an apparent attack of conscience. Or maybe they just realized stealing from the government isn't the brightest career move – who knows! 🤷‍♂️

According to our friends at Arkham Intelligence, this digital Robin Hood (minus the whole giving to the poor part) had a change of heart in July, returning a whopping $19.3 million to the government wallet within 24 hours. The returned loot included 2,412 Ether, 7,200 USD Coin, and $13.2 million in Aave-staked USDC. Though let's not give them too much credit – they still kept about $700,000 in "finder's fees" (that's what we're calling it, right?) sent to instant exchanges.

But wait, there's more! This incident is just the cherry on top of what's been a pretty wild Q3 2024 for crypto security. According to CertiK, crypto losses are up 9.5%, with threat actors making off with more than $750 million in total. Talk about a bull run – just not the kind we wanted!

October has been particularly spicy, featuring a greatest hits collection of crypto calamities:

• Radiant Capital said goodbye to $50 million in a cross-chain lending protocol exploit

• Ambient Finance had their website go rogue (but thankfully, no funds were harmed in the making of this hack)

• Eigenlayer had their X account briefly turn into a spam factory with fake airdrop links

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Mystery hacker returns 88% ($19.3M) of stolen government funds within 24 hours of the theft

Hacker kept approximately $700,000 in funds sent to instant exchanges

This incident is part of a larger trend, with Q3 2024 seeing a 9.5% increase in crypto security losses

Tether in Hot Water? More Like Lukewarm Tea, Says CEO

The Wall Street Journal just posted a report, what they thought was a bombshell about Tether being under federal investigation, but Tether's CEO Paolo Ardoino basically responded with the corporate equivalent of "Nothing to see here, move along!"

According to the WSJ's "exclusive" report (air quotes very much intended), the Justice Department is playing detective with a criminal investigation into how third parties might be using Tether for their not-so-legal activities. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department is apparently contemplating throwing some sanctions Tether's way, citing concerns about its use by sanctioned groups. With $190 billion in USDT traded daily, that's a lot of digital dollars to keep track of!

But wait! Tether's response was spicier than a wasabi-flavored ice cream. They called the allegations "outrageous" and criticized the WSJ for what they termed "wildly irresponsible" journalism based on unnamed sources. Ardoino took to X to dismiss it all as "old noise" – which might just be the new fancy term for FUD in 2024!

The plot thickens when we look at Tether's track record. They've actually been quite the boy scout lately, helping over 145 law enforcement agencies recover more than $108.8 million in USDT from bad actors since 2014. Though let's not forget their $42.5 million fine from the CFTC back in 2021 – oopsie!

The crypto market, being its typically dramatic self, had a bit of a moment over the news. Bitcoin took a quick dip from $67,367 to $66,016, and its crypto cousins Ether, BNB, Solana, and XRP all joined the synchronized swimming event of temporary price drops.

WSJ reports federal investigations into Tether, which the company strongly denies as baseless

Tether emphasizes its proactive cooperation with law enforcement, having helped recover over $108.8M in stolen funds

The news caused a brief market wobble, though prices showed signs of recovery

Coinbase Unleashes Three Minute AI Trading Bots Anyone Can Build

Coinbase has just dropped their latest tech toy called "Based Agent," and it's basically like getting your own AI butler for your crypto needs (minus the British accent, unfortunately).

According to Coinbase developer Lincoln Murr, this nifty tool lets you create your own AI agent in under three minutes - that's faster than making instant ramen! These digital helpers can do everything from trading and swapping to staking, all while you sit back and watch cat videos (I mean, attend to important business).

The setup requires a few ingredients: a Coinbase API key, an OpenAI key, and the Replit template. It's like a recipe for a tech smoothie, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is so excited about it, he's practically shouting it from his digital rooftop to his 1.3 million followers.

Speaking of Armstrong, he's been quite the AI enthusiast lately. He recently played crypto cupid by offering Truth Terminal (an AI chatbot) its own crypto wallet - talk about modern romance! The company even has an AI agent named "Luna" who's been independently tipping people online like a digital Santa Claus.

Mode Network founder James Ross is betting big, predicting that by April 2025, AI agents might be handling the majority of blockchain transactions. That's right, over 80% of all blockchain transactions could be managed by AI in the next 6-12 months. If that's not enough to make your CPU spin, I don't know what is!

Coinbase launches Based Agent, allowing users to create AI agents for crypto transactions in under 3 minutes 

These AI agents can handle multiple functions including trading, swapping, and staking

Industry experts predict AI agents could handle 80% of blockchain transactions by April 2025

And that's all the scoops for today, my wonderful PoI readers! 💫 From hackers returning funds (faith in humanity restored?) to AI agents managing our trades (welcome to the future!), it's been quite the rollercoaster. Hope these bytes of crypto wisdom left you feeling both entertained and enlightened!

P.S. Don't forget to share your thoughts, questions, and favorite crypto puns with us. very voice matters in the PoI community! 📣❤️ Share the newsletter

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