Deep Dive
1. Upbit Hack Impacts Solana Assets (27 November 2025)
Overview: South Korea's largest exchange, Upbit, suffered a security breach resulting in the unauthorized outflow of approximately $36–$38.5 million in Solana-based assets. Access Protocol (ACS) was explicitly listed among the affected tokens. The exchange halted services, moved remaining assets to cold storage, and its CEO pledged to fully cover customer losses from company reserves, ensuring no user balances were impacted.
What this means: This is a neutral-to-bearish event for ACS. While the direct financial impact on users was mitigated by Upbit's guarantee, the incident highlights the systemic risks for tokens listed on centralized exchanges and could temporarily dampen sentiment due to association with a high-profile security failure. (Decrypt)
2. Creator Coins Launch Sparks Rally (26 August 2025)
Overview: Access Protocol launched "Creator Coins" on Solana, a feature allowing digital creators to launch their own tokens via a Proof-of-Audience mechanism powered by Raydium Launchlab. The announcement triggered a powerful market reaction, with the ACS token price more than doubling intraday and 24-hour trading volume exploding by over 12,800% to $115 million.
What this means: This is bullish for ACS as it demonstrates successful product execution and strong market demand for its core Web3 monetization model. The surge in volume and price indicates increased utility and speculative interest, positioning ACS as a key player in Solana's creator economy. (Crypto Times)
3. Access Earn Program Boosts Liquidity (12 July 2025)
Overview: The protocol launched "Access Earn: Season 1," a liquidity mining program in partnership with Forgd, Orca, and Kamino Finance. The initiative incentivizes users to provide liquidity to ACS/SOL trading pairs through Kamino Vaults, offering automated yield compounding and distributing 15 million ACS in initial rewards.
What this means: This is bullish for ACS as it directly addresses liquidity and token distribution—key challenges for any DeFi token. By incentivizing deeper pools, the program aims to reduce slippage, improve trading stability, and reward long-term stakers, strengthening the protocol's underlying financial infrastructure. (Access Protocol)
Conclusion
ACS's trajectory is being shaped by robust product development—like Creator Coins and Access Earn—that bolsters its utility, even as it navigates external shocks like the Upbit hack. Will continued ecosystem innovation be enough to decouple its long-term value from broader market and exchange-related vulnerabilities?