Crypto
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Slope wallets blamed for Solana-based wallet attack
As the dust settles from yesterday’s Solana ecosystem mayhem, data is surfacing that wallet provider Slope is largely responsible for the security exploit that stole crypto from thousands of Solana users. Slope is a Web3 wallet provider for the Solana layer-1 (L1) blockchain. Through the Solana Status Twitter account on Aug. 3, the Solana Foundation pointed the finger at Slope stating that “it appears affected addresses were at one point created, imported, or used in Slope mobile wallet applications.” After an investigation by developers, ecosystem teams, and security auditors, it appears affected addresses were at one point created, imported, or used in Slope mobile wallet applications. 1/2 — Solana Status (@SolanaStatus) August 3, 2022 Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko also linked Slop...
Winnipeg police get provincial funding to beef blockchain forensics unit
Police in Winnipeg, the capital of the Canadian province of Manitoba, will be better prepared to deal with the use of cryptocurrency in cybercrime, thanks to $100,000 Canadian Dollars (CAD) in funding provided by the provincial government. Provincial Justice Minister Kevin Goertzen on Aug. 3 said the money from the Criminal Property Forfeiture Fund will be used to put five additional members of the police service through a Cryptocurrency Tracing Certified Examiner training program, as well as to purchase specialized software to trace cybercrime activities such as CipherTrace and Blockchain Forensics. According to the Manitoba government, cybercrimes have increased by more than 370% between 2016 and 2020. Sgt. Trevor Thompson of the Winnipeg police financial crime unit said in a statement: ...
Riot Blockchain’s Bitcoin mining productivity dropped 28% YOY amid record Texas heat
Crypto mining firm Riot Blockchain reported it produced fewer Bitcoin (BTC) in July 2022 than that in July 2021 after scaling down operations at its Texas facility. In a Wednesday announcement, Riot said its miners had produced 318 Bitcoin in July, more than 28% less than the 443 BTC the firm reported generating in July 2021. According to Riot CEO Jason Les, the firm curtailed operations by 11,717 megawatt-hours in July in response to increasing demand on Texas’ energy grid. Many parts of the Lone Star State experienced several days with temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, requiring additional power for air conditioners. “As energy demand in [Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT] reached all-time highs this past month, the company voluntarily curtailed its energy...
MicroStrategy stock MSTR hits 3-month high after CEO’s exit
MicroStrategy (MSTR) stock opened higher on Aug. 3 as investors digested the news of its CEO Michael Saylor’s exit after a depressive quarterly earnings report. Microstrategy stock up 142% since May lows On the daily chart, MSTR’s price surged by nearly 14.5% to $324.55 per share, the highest level since May 6. The stock’s intraday gains came as a part of a broader recovery that started on May 12 at $134. Since then, MSTR has grown by 142% versus Nasdaq’s 26.81% gains in the same period. MSTR daily price chart. Source: TradingView Bad Q2, Saylor’s resignation The Aug. 3 MSTR rally came a day after MicroStrategy reported a billion dollar loss in its second quarter (Q2) earnings call. Interestingly, the company’s major Bitcoin exposure was a large re...
Binance pilots NFT ticketing: Nifty Newsletter, July 27–Aug 2
In this week’s newsletter, read about how Binance started its nonfungible token (NFT) ticketing service by partnering with a sports club. Check out the NFT exchange-traded fund (ETF), which was released by trading platform KuCoin and how Google AI was able to paint BAYC-inspired NFTs. In other news, learn about how much the NFT community spent in minting NFTs in the first half of 2022 and check out the upcoming NFT album by British rock band Muse. And, don’t forget about this week’s Nifty News roundup featuring Dr DisRespect’s NFT game and FC Barcelona’s NFT release. Binance jumps into NFT ticketing after UEFA League fiasco Crypto exchange Binance partnered with Società Sportiva Lazio to launch its NFT ticketing solution. With this, all of the sports club’s home matches will have NFT ticke...
Senators Stabenow, Boozman introduce crypto bill that extends CFTC’s regulatory powers
United States Senate Agriculture Committee chair Debbie Stabenow and ranking member John Boozman introduced the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act bill on Wednesday. The bill has been expected for several months. Like the Digital Commodities Exchange Act (DCEA) introduced into the House of Representatives by members of the House Agriculture Committee in April, the new bill enlarges the role of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The new bill is not the companion to the DCEA, however. According to the summary, the bill’s definition of digital commodities “includes Bitcoin and Ether and excludes certain financial instruments including securities,” which are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The bill mandates registration by t...
EU crypto community has two weeks to join conversation on crypto data
The European Union’s securities regulator continues to strengthen its focus on cryptocurrency regulation, initiating a move to implement increased scrutiny of crypto transactions. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on Tuesday issued a public tender document aiming to collect additional information about trading data on crypto transactions. The regulator is specifically looking for “crypto off-chain data” or crypto-related transactions that do not originate from a blockchain. According to ESMA, such transactions include spot and derivatives trade at centralized exchanges or over-the-counter trading platforms. “The coverage should encompass all major exchanges and crypto assets so that it provides a fair representation of the crypto market landscape,” the document reads.&nb...
What are crypto pump and dump groups? Are they legal?
Pump-and-dump operations, which fraudulently manipulate prices by disseminating false information, have existed in economic contexts since at least the 1700s. For instance, con artists with shares in the South Sea Company started making false statements about the business and its revenues in the beginning of the eighteenth century. The plan was to inflate the stock price artificially before selling it to uninformed consumers misled into thinking they were investing in a promising good. Contemporary con artists are following their example with a pump-and-dump strategy known as the South Sea Bubble. However, with the advent of blockchain technology and the rise of crypto trading, the issue has become broader and more severe. Because government regulation has lagged, cryptocurrencies ar...
Solana wallets ‘compromised and abandoned’ as users warned of scam solutions
The cryptocurrency ecosystem has been rocked by a widespread exploit targeting Solana wallets that have been ongoing since Aug. 3. Phantom and Slope, two Solana-based wallet services, initially flagged the attack on their social media platforms, alongside a host of cryptocurrency influencers, blockchain analytic and security firms and victims of the hack as it continued to unfold. A handful of commentators noted that attackers had gained access to user private keys, as transactions were signed on the chain legitimately. Ava Labs CEO and founder Emin Gun Sirer estimated that more than 7,000 wallets had been affected, a number cited by various other individuals and firms online. As investigations begin to unpack the root cause that allowed an attacker to pillage thousands of wallets, affecte...
Nomad reportedly ignored security vulnerability that led to $190M exploit
The Nomad token bridge hack on Aug. 3 was the fourth largest crypto hack in history that saw nearly $200 million worth of crypto assets drained from the platform. However, more than the hack, the methodology behind it garnered widespread attention. The exploit took place due to a smart contract vulnerability that saw hundreds of users other than the hacker also get involved, taking away as much as they can by simply copy-pasting the transaction data used by the initial hacker and changing the wallet address to theirs. The event was later deemed as a decentralized robbery by many due to the involvement of normal community members. Later, the Nomad team revealed to Cointelegraph that some of the people who took funds were acting benevolently to protect the crypto from getting into the w...
‘This is on me’ — Robinhood CEO to lay off 23% of staff after Q2 loss
Online brokerage firm Robinhood will lay off nearly a quarter of its employees, citing a continued deterioration of the macro environment and a broad crypto market crash. The bad news came in a Tuesday blog post from co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev, on the same day the firm released tepid Q2 financial results and the New York State Department of Financial Services announced a $30 million fine for the company’s crypto branch due to alleged Anti-Money Laundering, cybersecurity and consumer protection violations. Tenev wrote that the layoffs would impact all functions in the company, particularly operations, marketing, and program management, with around 23% of the staff let go. The Financial Times estimated the number of employees impacted to be around 780. “Departing Robinhoodies ...
Textbook publisher Pearson wants to use NFTs to capture second-hand sales
Textbook publisher Pearson has revealed its plans to use non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to keep track of digital textbook sales and effectively “diminish the secondary market.” According to a Bloomberg report on August 1, Pearson CEO Andy Bird wants to assign NFTs to its digital textbooks in order to keep better track of sales and capture revenue that was previously lost on the secondhand market. Bird hopes the company can use the technology to earn commission on second-hand sales of its textbooks, which are normally done privately from one student to another. Bird noted: “Technology like blockchain and NFTs allows us to participate in every sale of that particular item as it goes through its life. The possibility to participate in downstream revenues […] I find really interesting....
