MACHI, the new token tied to the crypto influencer and serial investor Machi Big Brother, made its trading debut on Monday. The token started trading in one decentralized pair, after raising $5M from early buyers. 

MACHI, the new project of Jeffrey Huang, started trading through Baseline markets. The token raised $5M, tapping the still enthusiastic buyers from several former projects, including the now-defunct Friend.tech. 

Soon after launching, MACHI rallied from its baseline presale price of $0.07, rallying as high as $0.24. In the first hours of trading, MACHI settled around $0.18. The early trades often originate from the wallets of crypto influencers and high-profile NFT owners. 

Among simple swaps, the Baseline DEX also brought a new type of transaction: looping. The loop allows traders to hold leveraged positions in MACHI, paying a constant fee, but with no fear of being liquidated due to the baseline price of MACHI. 

Looping creates a leveraged position by acquiring a baseline token and continuously borrowing against it. The presence of looping transactions on Baseline DEX also means some of the liquidity on MACHI can unravel fast, as it relies on borrowing. 

MACHI is still accruing trading history, with a few hundred buy and sell orders on each side. The token is paired with USDB, the native stablecoin of the Blast blockchain. For the short duration of trading, MACHI accrued $9.88M in liquidity, reporting 4.23M in trading volumes for the first hours. 

The new token also has a 45/100 DEX score, as it has not presented its full features for auditing, including its main contract. MACHI started with a hyped-up community, calling back to the holders of BAYC and MAYC NFT, in addition to other Blast chain projects. 

The token presale was essentially open for most BLAST chain users, but insider communities were more active. BAYC and MAYC owners were among the most active buyers, along with other early bidders. MACHI targeted crypto insiders and communities with high net worth wallets, creating a mix of meme hype and DeFi opportunities. 

One of the positive features of MACHI is that there is a contractual floor price of $0.079, not allowing the asset to sink to zero. MACHI also performs constant buybacks and burns, using fees generated to support the market. The initial trading hype also meant early buyers saw their portfolios rally by 80-100% in the short term. 

The token launched on the Blast L2 blockchain, adding to the peak inflows of $6.62M as of September 6. Blast now carries $743.83 in value, with a significant part tied to the Thruster DEX. This market is also used as a trading router for the MACHI token trades. 

Blast is one of the smaller L2 platforms, which has received around $99.52M in inflows from Ethereum.

Machi Big Brother absorbed Friend.tech losses

Serial investor Machi Big Brother has been known for supporting multiple projects, even when their tokens were faltering. Previously, Machi Big Brother held positions in ApeCoin (APE) and Blur (BLUR), ending up as a net seller and crashing the price. 

Despite supporting Blast projects for their unique technology, Machi Big Brother has also held losing BLAST positions. Previously, he has also supported projects like Gitcoin, absorbing additional losses for BLUR ecosystem point mining. 

When it comes to Friend.tech, however, Machi Big Brother remained active until the last. He retained both positions as a trader and remnant activity on his SocialFi account. 

The known Friend.tech wallet of Machi Big Brother contains 11,100,061 FRIEND, valued at around $954K. The FRIEND position was acquired for more than 5.2K ETH, valued at above $16M at the time of investment. That same wallet bought more FRIEND through DEX trading as late as August 9, with another significant loss. 

FRIEND crashed as low as $0.06 after the team admitted the app was defunct and relinquished control of its main smart contracts. 

The deep losses incurred by Machi Big Brother raised questions on the reliability of the new MACHI project. While the asset was hyped up, it was also seen as a potential rug pull or a way for Machi Big Brother to make up for previous losses. 

Cryptopolitan reporting by Hristina Vasileva

Bitcoin ATMs are popping up across the United States, offering folks a really convenient way to buy or sell BTC. And while they may look harmless, tucked into convenience stores and gas stations, they are fast becoming hotspots for cybercriminals.

Hackers are finding ways to exploit the very features that make BTC so appealing to users: its lack of regulation and irreversible transactions. 

Timothy Bates, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Michigan, says these machines are vulnerable to both physical and digital attacks. 

“Bitcoin ATMs are particularly exposed to cyber threats because they often don’t get regular security updates.”

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently reported a 1,000% increase in Bitcoin ATM fraud since 2020.

It’s not hard to see why: BTC’s decentralized nature means there is no central authority to oversee these ATMs or undo fraudulent transactions. 

Joe Dobson, principal analyst at Mandiant, explained that this is a major issue. “Once funds are sent to the wrong wallet, they’re gone. No one can reverse that,” he said.

If the ATM’s network is not secure, attackers can intercept data between the machine and the server. Bates warns:

“This kind of attack can lead to data theft or unauthorized access to user funds.”

Bitcoin ATMs also present new risks not seen with traditional cash ATMs. To comply with Know Your Customer (KYC) laws, these machines often require users to provide personal information such as an ID or Social Security number.

If an ATM is compromised, this sensitive information could be stolen.

A case in South Carolina involved a woman suing Bitcoin Depot, the largest operator of Bitcoin ATMs, after she lost money to a scam. Authorities in Texas had to step in to help another victim recover her funds after falling prey to a similar scheme.

Bitcoin Depot operates over 8,000 ATMs, and while CEO Brandon Mintz claims the machines are designed with security in mind, fraud continues to be an issue.

“Our machines only accept cash, which eliminates some risks that traditional ATMs face,” said Mintz.

Still, fraud is not something the company can fully avoid. In Bitcoin Depot’s S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company admitted that its users have been and could be targeted by cybercriminals.

Bitcoin ATMs have become easy prey for scammers looking to change receiving wallet addresses and steal funds.

Mintz and other experts agree that user responsibility is the key to avoiding fraud at Bitcoin ATMs. Mintz advises customers to avoid sending BTC to unknown wallets or to individuals they don’t know.

“When it comes to cryptocurrency, the onus is on the user. If something goes wrong, you can’t rely on technology to fix it for you.”

While many in the crypto community appreciate Bitcoin’s lack of centralized control, it creates an environment where fraud can thrive unchecked.