Crypto
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Inverse Finance exploited again for $1.2M in flashloan oracle attack
Just two months after losing $15.6 million in a price oracle manipulation exploit, Inverse Finance has again been hit with a flashloan exploit that saw the attackers make off with $1.26 million in Tether (USDT) and Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC). Inverse Finance is an Ethereum based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol and a flashloan is a type of crypto loan that is usually borrowed and returned within a single transaction. Oracles report outside pricing information. The latest exploit worked by using a flashloan to manipulate the price oracle for a liquidity provider (LP) token used by the protocol’s money market application. This allowed the attacker to borrow a larger amount of the protocol’s stablecoin DOLA than the amount of collateral they posted, letting them pocket the difference. The at...
Mark Cuban says crypto crash highlights Warren Buffett’s wisdom
Billionaire crypto investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban says the current market downturn reminds him of a well-known adage uttered by Warren Buffett. Cuban sees a parallel between the rise and fall of crypto markets and projects, and the 91-year-old ‘Oracle of Omaha’s aphorism that: “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” Cuban’s observation was revealed during a June 16 interview with Fortune in which he discussed what he sees as flawed business models of some crypto projects that have fallen on hard times over the past two months. “In stocks and crypto, you will see companies that were sustained by cheap, easy money—but didn’t have valid business prospects—will disappear,” the Shark Tank investor said. “Like ...
Elon Musk gets hit with ‘ridiculous’ $258B Dogecoin lawsuit
Billionaire Elon Musk, along with his companies SpaceX and Tesla Inc, are all being sued for an astonishing $258 billion in damages for being “engaged in a crypto pyramid scheme” involving Dogecoin (DOGE). The damages sought are more than 34 times Dogecoin’s current market cap of $7.5 billion and nearly three times its ATH market cap of $88.68 billion in mid-2021. Filed in the New York District Court by an attorney at Evan Spencer Law on Thursday, the class-action lawsuit alleges that Musk “used his pedestal as World’s Richest man to operate and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for profit, exposure, and amusement.” In the filing, plaintiff Keith Johnson, a U.S. citizen, alleges that Musk and his corporations were “unjustly enriched” by $86 billion as a result of wire fraud, gambling ...
President of Panama shoots down crypto bill citing FATF guidelines
Panama’s President Laurentino Cortizo has partially vetoed Bill No. 697 dubbed the “crypto bill” saying it requires more work to better fit Panama’s financial regulations. President Cortizo previously warned in May he wouldn’t sign the bill unless it included additional Anti-Money Laundering rules after Panama’s National Assembly passed the crypto bill in late April 2022. Local media outlet La Prenda obtained a copy of the 32-page veto, reporting the President wrote it’s “imperative” the cryptocurrency laws conform to new regulations recommended by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) outlining “fiscal transparency and prevention of money laundering”. President Cortizo has previously described the legislation as an “innovative law”, and indicated approval of certain aspects of the ...
Regulations and exchange delistings put future of private cryptocurrencies in doubt
The core principles of cryptocurrency were based on financial independence, decentralization and anonymity. With regulations being the key to mass adoption, however, the privacy aspect of the crypto market seems to be in jeopardy. In 2022, even though no particular country has come up with a universal regulatory outline that governs the whole crypto market, most countries have introduced some form of legislation to govern a few aspects of the crypto market such as trading and financial services. While different countries have set different rules and regulations in accordance with their existing financial laws, a common theme has been the strict implementation of Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations. A majority of crypto exchanges operating with a license obt...
Soulbound Tokens: Social credit system or spark for global adoption?
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s Soulbound Token proposal for a robust identity and reputation system has stirred up the crypto community. Soulbound Tokens or SBTs are non-transferable, non-financialized tokens tied to a unique profile proving verifiable achievements and commitments. Still at the concept stage, it’s suggested SBTs will be capable of tracking memberships, credentials and affiliations with educational establishments, decentralized lenders and other entities. Supporters say that SBTs could be the use case for the next bull market. But others have likened the concept to China’s social credit system and say it’s an “expensive solution to a problem that’s already been solved.” So, which is it? Let’s take a deeper dive. Soulbound Tokens: Not sure about the name but the...
Further downside is expected, but multiple data points suggest Bitcoin is undervalued
The outlook across the cryptocurrency ecosystem continue to dim as the sharp downtrend that was initially sparked by the collapse of Terra now appears to have claimed the Singapore-based crypto venture capital firm Three Arrows Capital (3AC) as its next victim. As large crypto projects and investment firms begin to collapse on a weekly basis, the prospect of a long, drawn out bear market is a reality investors are beginning to accept. Based on a recent Twitter poll conducted by market analyst and pseudonymous Twitter user Plan C, 41.6% of respondents indicated that they thought the Bitcoin (BTC) bottom will fall between the $17,000 to $20,000 range. Total Bitcoin supply in profit held by short-term holders. Source: Twitter Addresses holding at least 1 BTC hits a new ...
Three Arrows Capital has failed to meet margin calls: Report
Venture firm Three Arrows Capital (3AC) has reportedly failed to meet margin calls from its lenders, raising the spectre of insolvency after this week’s crypto market collapse triggered unforeseen liquidations for the Singapore-based company. Crypto lender BlockFi was among the firms to liquidate at least some of 3AC’s positions, according to the Financial Times. Citing people familiar with the matter, FT reported that 3AC had borrowed Bitcoin (BTC) from the lender but was unable to meet a margin call after the market turned sour earlier this week. The issues surrounding 3AC appear to have impacted Finblox, a Hong Kong-based platform that allows investors to earn yield on their digital assets. Finblox said it was forced to reduce its withdrawal limits on Thursday due to concerns surroundin...
How Ankr transformed the scalability of the BNB Chain
Cryptocurrency’s tussle with scalability is well known. Ethereum suffers from sky-high gas fees making it unusable for a lot of customers, leading to a lot of alternative Layer-1’s popping up. Binance, one of the world’s leading exchanges, was one such firm to develop its very own blockchain. While some criticise the BNB Smart Chain for being centralised, one cannot argue against the basement-level fees and impressive scalability that it offers. Its impressive performance is partially due to Ankr, the Web3 infrastructure provider. Consulting with the Binance team, Ankr implemented several open-source performance improvements which transformed the network. There was a 10x increase in RPC request throughput, 75% reduction in storage requirements, a sync process that is 100x faste...
US Air Force taps SIMBA Chain to develop budgeting and accounting system
For many years, the United States Military has been experimenting with blockchain in a number of settings to enhance its operations. Now, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) is adopting blockchain into its budgeting and accounting processes. According to a Thursday press release, the USAF has enlisted SIMBA Chain, a blockchain-as-a-service platform, to develop a blockchain-based system for tracking and monitoring the military’s cash flow and supply chain quality and management. The goal of the project, dubbed Digital Blockchain Budgeting Accountability and Tracking (DiBaT), is to tokenize all dollars within the USAF supply chain budget, as well as track fund movement across billing centers, purchasing teams and suppliers. DiBaT, as per the release, uses SIMBA Blocks to track and audit funds in...
BTC price rejects at $23K as US dollar declines from fresh 20-year highs
Bitcoin (BTC) ran out of steam near $23,000 on June 16 after the biggest United States key rate hike in nearly thirty years. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Dollar strength wobbles after rate hike news Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching highs of $22,957 on Bitstamp after the Federal Reserve confirmed a 0.75% hike in June — its largest since 1994. Momentum did not last long, however, and at the time of writing, the pair had shed $2,000 to return to $21,000 at the new Wall Street open. $BTC Did indeed fail to hold the mid range and fell back to the range low which it has held so far. This range low is my line in the sand if BTC doesn’t want to revisit the lows and possibly test sub $20K levels. Holding here and w...
Blockchain’s potential: How AI can change the decentralized ledger
One reason is that blockchain’s use of a decentralized ledger offers insight into the workings of AI systems and the provenance of the data these platforms may be using. As a result, transactions can be facilitated with a high level of trust while maintaining solid data integrity. Not only that, but the use of blockchain systems to store and distribute AI-centric operational models can help in the creation of an audit trail, which in turn allows for enhanced data security. Furthermore, the combination of AI and blockchain, at least on paper, seems to be extremely potent, one that is capable of improving virtually every industry within which it is implemented. For example, the combination has the potential to enhance today’s existing food supply chain logistics, healthcare record-sharing ec...
