The Australian Dollar (AUD) staged a notable recovery on Monday, buoyed by a combination of improved global market sentiment and positive signals from China.
China’s leadership has pledged to implement more proactive fiscal policies and looser monetary measures in 2023 to stimulate domestic consumption. This announcement, ahead of the crucial Central Economic Work Conference, has ignited speculation about further stimulus measures.
While weak Chinese Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, which contracted by 0.6% in November, might have dampened sentiment, the anticipation of additional stimulus has outweighed the negative impact. This development has provided a much-needed boost to the Australian Dollar, which is closely tied to China’s economic health.
RBA Rate Decision in Focus
In Australia, market participants are eagerly awaiting the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) monetary policy decision on Tuesday. While the central bank is expected to maintain the cash rate at its current level of 4.35%, investors will be closely watching for clues about the potential timing of an easing cycle.
Governor Philip Lowe’s commentary on this matter will likely be a key driver of the Australian Dollar’s near-term direction. If Lowe strikes a dovish tone, suggesting that rate cuts may be on the horizon, the AUD could face downward pressure. Conversely, a more hawkish stance could support the currency.
As the global economic landscape continues to evolve, the Australian Dollar’s performance will remain intertwined with developments in China and the RBA’s monetary policy decisions. Investors will be closely monitoring these factors to gauge the currency’s future trajectory.
In the first six months of 2025, crypto thefts reached an unprecedented $2.1 billion, setting a new record for illicit activity in the crypto space.
This marks a significant escalation from previous years, with infrastructure attacks and state-sponsored actors, particularly North Korea, driving the surge in losses.
Crypto Theft Reaches New Heights in H1 2025
In its latest report, TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence firm, disclosed that between January and June 2025, the crypto sector endured nearly 75 distinct hacks and exploits. These attacks led to losses exceeding $2.1 billion,
This represented a 10% increase compared to the previous record of $2 billion stolen in the first half of 2022. Moreover, the amount is nearly equivalent to the funds stolen throughout all of 2024.
“The first half of 2025 has delivered a stark reminder of the crypto ecosystem’s vulnerabilities,” the report read.
The Amount Stolen via Crypto Hacks Over the Years. Source: TRM Labs
TRM Labs noted that most of the stolen funds in the first half of 2025 (over 80%) resulted from infrastructure attacks. This includes tactics like stealing private keys and seed phrases or compromising platforms’ front end. On average, these incidents caused 10 times greater losses than other attacks, highlighting their outsized impact on the crypto ecosystem.
“Infrastructure attacks refer to attack techniques that target the technical backbone of the digital asset system to gain unauthorized control, mislead users, or reroute assets. Often enabled by social engineering or insider access, these breaches expose critical weaknesses at the foundation of cryptosecurity,” TRM added.
The firm also revealed that protocol exploits accounted for 12% of the stolen funds. This involves flash loans and re-entrancy attacks.
Malicious actors exploit vulnerabilities in a blockchain protocol’s underlying logic or smart contracts. This allows them to extract funds or disrupt the system’s functionality.
“This incident alone accounted for nearly 70% of total losses so far this year, pushing the average hack size to nearly $30 million — double the $15 million average in H1 2024,” the report stated.
TRM Labs pointed out that North Korea-affiliated groups were behind $1.6 billion of the total stolen funds. Moreover, the report highlighted that other state actors are increasingly using crypto hacks as a tool for geopolitical leverage.
“Such events underscore how digital asset theft is becoming a covert instrument in geopolitical conflicts and national policy,” TRM Labs added.
To combat these exploits, TRM Labs advocated for a multi-layered defense strategy. Recommendations include regular security audits, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and using cold storage.
The firm emphasized the need for advanced defenses against state-level threats, such as improved insider threat detection and countermeasures for social engineering. Lastly, TRM Labs stressed the importance of global collaboration among law enforcement, financial intelligence units, and blockchain intelligence firms to track stolen funds and prosecute cybercriminals.
Unstoppable Domains, a global leader in Web3 digital identity, and XYO, a leader in infrastructure layer for the DEPIN economy, today announced the launch of two groundbreaking top-level domains, .DEPIN and .XYO. Designed to accelerate the growth of the rapidly emerging DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network) sector, these domains offer users verified, onchain identities tied directly to real-world infrastructure and data systems.
The launch coincides with a major inflection point for the DePIN industry, which has reached a total market capitalization of approximately $18.8 billion. These networks reward individuals with cryptocurrency for contributing resources like storage, bandwidth, or location data, enabling decentralized alternatives to traditional infrastructure models.
Markus Levin, Co-founder of XYO, emphasized the shift toward utility-driven crypto models: “The next wave of crypto innovation won’t be driven by hype or complexity — but by real-world utility. With DePIN, blockchain fades into the background while data and decentralized resources become the new gold. .DEPIN and .XYO domains give people a verified onchain identity to actively shape the future of decentralized infrastructure.”
As the first DePIN operating system, XYO already empowers millions to contribute verifiable location data via XYO Nodes. The new .XYO domain will give users a direct gateway to the XYO ecosystem, while .DEPIN provides a broader foundation for builders and contributors across the entire DePIN category.
Sandy Carter, COO of Unstoppable Domains, added: “With .DEPIN and .XYO, we’re making onchain participation intuitive, secure, and personal. These domains allow people to own their identity within the growing decentralized infrastructure stack. Our next step — taking these domains to ICANN — reflects our commitment to bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3 naming systems.”
By moving to take both .DEPIN and .XYO through the ICANN application process, Unstoppable Domains and XYO aim to bring decentralized digital identity into the global domain name system — laying the groundwork for mainstream adoption.
Launched in 2018, Unstoppable Domains is an ICANN-accredited registrar and leading digital identity platform dedicated to onboarding the world onto DNS and Web3. Unstoppable Domains provides Web3 domains minted on the blockchain, empowering individuals with full ownership and complete control over their digital identities, with no renewal fees. Users can replace lengthy alphanumeric crypto wallet addresses with easy-to-remember human-readable domain names, streamlining their interactions with apps, wallets, exchanges, and marketplaces. Recognized by Forbes as one of America’s Best Startup Employers for four consecutive years—2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025—Unstoppable Domains has rapidly grown, boasting over 4.2 million registered domains.
About XYO
Founded in 2018, XYO is the first DePIN and one of the largest, with over 10 million nodes. XYO collects and validates real-world data, connecting Web3, Web2, and industries like AI and geolocation. Their Proof of Location and Proof of Origin technologies power real-world asset tracking, DePIN solutions, and interactive gaming experiences. XYO created the COIN app to drive network growth, and their XYO token is listed on major exchanges like Coinbase. In addition to the XYO Foundation, they founded XY Labs Inc., the first crypto company in the U.S. to gain SEC approval for a Regulation A offering, allowing both accredited and non-accredited investors. XY Labs is also one of the first to tokenize and list its shares, trading under $XYLB on tZERO ATS, leading the charge in the RWA wave.
