A hardware wallet is supposed to protect your crypto. But what happens when the device itself becomes part of the problem? On October 9, 2026, wallets belonging to people who bought Ledger devices through reseller CryptoBilis were drained. Bitquery’s investigation eventually traced $102 million in stolen crypto across 335 wallets and six blockchains. The investigation also found that the thief had spent two weeks testing small transactions before the drain. But here’s the part I want you to pay attention to. The money didn’t simply disappear after the wallets were emptied. Investigators followed the funds across different chains, tracked swaps between assets, identified wallets holding the stolen funds, and monitored movements through services used to exchange or obscure transactions. Some of the funds were frozen. Others continued moving. You can read the investigation here: bitquery.io/investigations/l… Now, why does this matter beyond the incident itself? Because finding out that money has left a wallet is only the beginning of an investigation. The next questions are harder. Where did the funds go? Which addresses received them? What happened to those funds afterward? And how do you separate what the blockchain actually shows from what you merely suspect? Answering these questions requires more than looking at isolated transactions. You need a way to follow wallet activity, investigate transaction connections, and examine market information in context. This is where @tickingdev comes in. Ticking is building an on-chain research platform that brings wallet activity, transaction tracking, market intelligence, and charting into one research experience. One way to understand what the platform offers is to look at how its features help you investigate what’s happening on-chain, starting with the movement of funds between wallets. With WALLETS MAPS & TRANSACTION TRACKING, you can explore connections between addresses, follow transaction paths, and inspect the records behind those connections. Every transfer leaves a trail, but following that trail across different addresses can become complicated, especially when funds move repeatedly or cross between networks. For example, if Wallet A sends funds to Wallet B, you can inspect that transfer and investigate what happens next. Does Wallet B send the funds elsewhere? Are the assets swapped for another token? Do subsequent transactions lead to other addresses? Each transaction provides another piece of evidence to investigate. This is the idea behind wallet tracking: turning a collection of individual transactions into a trail you can follow. But there’s an important distinction. A connection between two wallets doesn’t automatically mean they belong to the same person. A transaction alone doesn’t tell you why it happened either. Good on-chain research means following the evidence without pretending it proves more than it does. Ticking’s wallet explorer lets users search for wallets, tokens, protocols, and transactions, then explore recorded activity and transaction connections. However, tracing transactions is only part of understanding the bigger picture. If those transactions involve a particular token, you may also want to know what’s happening with its price and the market around it. That’s where MARKET INTELLIGENCE & TOKEN RESEARCH becomes relevant. Knowing where a transaction went doesn’t necessarily tell you what’s happening in the market. Suppose you discover a token while investigating on-chain activity. You want to understand its price, how that price has changed over time, and what market information is available to help you investigate it. Looking at one price figure won’t answer every question. You need context. What market does the price refer to? When was the observation recorded? How has the price moved over the period you’re examining? What does the available historical data show?⤵️

Your MEXC Membership Score Is More Than Just a Number Imagine getting a score of 750 out of 1,000. You know where you stand, but do you know what contributed to that score? Which parts of your activity are working in your favour? Which areas could use some attention? Without understanding what’s behind the number, it’s difficult to answer those questions. That’s what makes @MEXC VVIP Score Insights update interesting. It gives users a clearer view of the different dimensions behind their membership score. Let’s break it down. First, what exactly is MEXC VVIP? MEXC VVIP is a membership system built around something called M-Score. Your M-Score determines your membership tier, which is linked to the benefits available to you. There are three tiers: → Standard: 350–599
 → Premier: 600–799
 → Elite: 800+ One thing worth noting is that you don’t need to meet a predefined asset-balance or trading-volume threshold just to enter at Standard. The idea is to make entry into the membership system accessible without requiring users to reach a particular trading volume or asset balance first. But the score itself is more interesting than a single number. Your M-Score has five dimensions. Think of them as different parts of the bigger picture. 1. Trading Performance This reflects your recent trading activity and volume. One important distinction: this doesn’t measure whether your trades are profitable. The focus is on trading activity and volume, not whether you made money. So, a trading-related score shouldn’t automatically be interpreted as a measure of trading skill or profitability. 2. Asset Level This looks at your account assets and participation in eligible Earn services. In other words, your membership score considers more than how frequently you trade. Your assets and participation in eligible services are also part of the picture. 3. Security Verification Your account security matters, too. This dimension covers identity verification and security settings, including passkeys. While exploring the VVIP page, I came across an Advanced KYC Verification task that referenced an estimated increase of 100 points in security weight. That caught my attention because it illustrates how verification fits into the broader membership system. It also highlights something easy to overlook when using an exchange: protecting your account is important alongside trading and managing assets. The estimated points shown for a task shouldn’t be treated as a guarantee of a specific final M-Score. 4. Platform Activity How you interact with the platform is another part of the picture. This dimension reflects things such as regular platform use, exploring services and participating in campaigns. While exploring the VVIP page, I noticed tasks related to applying for the MEXC Card, activating Futures Earn and engaging with other platform features. These examples helped put the platform activity dimension into context. Your relationship with an exchange can extend beyond placing trades. There may be other services and activities that contribute to your overall membership progress. That doesn’t mean you need to use every available service. It’s more important to understand what is available and decide what actually suits your needs. 5. Account Tenure This dimension considers your ongoing relationship with MEXC, including continued use and engagement over time. It adds another factor to the bigger picture beyond your current assets and recent trading activity. Together, these five dimensions give you a broader view of the factors behind your M-Score. But understanding your score is only half the story. The other part is understanding what your membership tier means. MEXC VVIP connects its membership tiers with different privileges, including benefits such as vouchers, card cashback and enhanced support services, subject to the applicable tier and terms⤵️