Ethereum has staged a notable recovery after recently experiencing its lowest market dominance since its early days. The turnaround comes as ETH surged nearly 4% in the past 24 hours, climbing back above the $3,100 mark and narrowing its underperformance gap relative to Bitcoin.

For much of 2024, Ethereum has trailed behind Bitcoin and a growing wave of altcoins, with its market share dropping below 15% — levels not seen since 2015. The slump was driven by investor focus on Bitcoin ETF momentum, lackluster institutional interest in ETH, and rising competition from layer-1 and layer-2 networks offering faster and cheaper alternatives.

Despite these challenges, Ethereum’s fundamentals remain strong. Data shows a healthy uptick in active addresses, transaction volumes, and total value locked in DeFi protocols built on Ethereum. Additionally, hopes remain high for the approval of a spot Ethereum ETF in the U.S., with analysts suggesting a potential turnaround in institutional flows if approved.

Traders are now watching whether this rebound signals a sustained trend reversal or just a temporary relief rally. With key upgrades and ecosystem developments still in the pipeline, Ethereum’s ability to regain dominance may hinge on reigniting both investor confidence and broader developer activity.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has confirmed it will not pursue a retrial in its fraud case against HEX founder Richard Heart, effectively bringing an end to one of the agency’s high-profile crypto enforcement actions.

The decision follows a recent court ruling that dismissed several key allegations against Heart, including claims that he misled investors and violated securities laws through the promotion and sale of HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX tokens. While the SEC initially signaled it would consider further legal options, it has now opted to forgo additional litigation.

Heart, a controversial figure in the crypto world, had long denied the SEC’s accusations, framing the lawsuit as an overreach by regulators. The agency had alleged that Heart raised over $1 billion from investors while misrepresenting how funds would be used and failing to register the offerings.

With the SEC stepping back, the dismissal marks a rare instance in which the regulator has chosen not to continue a crypto-related fraud case, potentially signaling a reassessment of its approach amid growing legal pushback and mounting scrutiny over its enforcement tactics.

Although the case is now closed, legal analysts suggest the outcome could influence future regulatory efforts and may embolden other crypto founders facing similar challenges. Heart, meanwhile, has positioned the development as a vindication, reaffirming his stance that HEX and related projects were never in violation of U.S. securities laws.

The XRP Ledger Foundation has uncovered a malicious JavaScript package containing a backdoor capable of stealing cryptocurrency assets, prompting immediate action from the developer community.

The compromised package, named “ledgerhq,” was discovered on the NPM (Node Package Manager) repository. According to developers at the foundation, the package appeared to mimic legitimate code associated with Ledger hardware wallets but included malicious modifications designed to exfiltrate private keys and drain crypto wallets.

Upon identification, the XRP Ledger Foundation quickly issued warnings to the broader developer ecosystem, urging immediate removal of the package from any projects and recommending thorough audits of dependencies. The foundation credited its internal monitoring and open-source vigilance for the discovery.

The attacker had reportedly uploaded the package under a name similar to the legitimate Ledger library to deceive developers into using it unknowingly. Once integrated into applications, the backdoor would stealthily collect sensitive wallet information and transmit it to an external server.

The malicious package was swiftly removed from the NPM registry following reports. Security experts are continuing to investigate the full extent of its distribution and potential impact.

This incident highlights the growing sophistication of supply chain attacks targeting the crypto industry, particularly through open-source repositories. The XRP Ledger Foundation has called on developers to implement stricter code validation procedures and to verify package authenticity before integrating third-party libraries.

The foundation also emphasized its commitment to maintaining a secure development environment and announced plans to collaborate with other blockchain ecosystems to improve threat detection and response mechanisms across the crypto space.