cryptocurrencies
Circle freezes blacklisted Tornado Cash smart contract addresses
Crypto data aggregator Dune Analytics said that, on Monday, Circle, the issuer of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, froze over 75,000 USDC worth of funds linked to the 44 Tornado Cash addresses sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) list. Tornado Cash is a decentralized application, or DApp, used to obfuscate the trail of previous cryptocurrency transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. All U.S. persons and entities are prohibited from interacting with the virtual currency mixer’s USDC and Ethereum smart contract addresses on the SDN list. Penalties for willful noncompliance can range from fines of $50,000 to $10,000,000 and 10 to 30 years imprisonment. An estimated $437 million worth of assets, cons...
Dave Portnoy’s SafeMoon position is down 94%, claims he’s being sued by project
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has watched his investment in SafeMoon (SAFEMOON) crash by over 94%, proving to crypto enthusiasts that he is, in fact, capable of hodling during the bear market. The stock trader and media personality took to Twitter on Monday to lament his $40,000 investment in the memecoin, which has fallen to just $2,370.94 after he didn’t withdraw a single token. “Still holding by the way,” Portnoy said. “Diamond hands.” I put 40k into @safemoon I haven’t withdrawn any. It’s not worth 2.3k. And I’m being sued. https://t.co/qRAyBegQMm — Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) August 8, 2022 Portnoy claimed that he’s also being sued by SafeMoon, possibly for “trashing” the project on his show, but didn’t elaborate much further. In a separate tweet, Portnoy shared a scr...
Trend Micro calls out vulnerabilities in metaverse security development
In a new report published by American-Japanese cybersecurity company Trend Micro, the firm said that the Metaverse possesses increasing vulnerabilities that could materialize within the next three to five years. As told by Trend Micro, the top threats to the sector, mainly from a regulatory standpoint, include NFT security concerns, the development of a “darkverse” similar to the dark web, financial fraud, privacy concerns, physical threats, augmented reality (AR) threats, social engineering and traditional information technology attacks. With regard to NFTs, Trend Micro specifically wrote: “NFT ownership is verified using blockchains so they are susceptible to blockchain hijacking attacks. NFTs that rely on smaller blockchains could be vulnerable to a Sybil attack. This is where the attac...
Binance sides with Indian regulators in WazirX fallout to cease support for off-chain transfers
As reported by local news outlet The Economic Times on Monday, Binance is scheduled to remove off-chain fund transfers with Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX on Thursday, although users will still be able to deposit and withdraw balances via the standard withdrawal and deposit process between the two exchanges. Three days prior, The Directorate of Enforcement of India alleged that WazirX “actively assisted around 16 accused fintech companies in laundering the proceeds of crime using the crypto route” and subsequently froze $8.1 million in bank balances related to the exchange. Simultaneously, there is an ongoing controversy regarding whether Binance owns the exchange. Last Friday, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), CEO of Binance, said that Binance does not own any equity in WazirX...
Vitalik Buterin proposes stealth addresses for anonymous NFT ownership
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has suggested there may be a “low-tech approach” to incorporating privacy features ito nonfungible token, or NFT, transactions. In a Monday post on the Ethereum research channel, Buterin implied Merkle trees and Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge, or ZK-SNARKs, were a more complicated method for stealth addresses for ERC-721 tokens, while proposing his own solution. The Ethereum co-founder suggested instead that smart contract wallets could include a method that would allow the sender to essentially mask their address to third parties. “You would be able to eg. send an NFT to vitalik.eth without anyone except me (the new owner) being able to see who the new owner is,” said Buterin. Idea: stealth addresses for ERC721s. A low-te...
Nigeria becomes the most crypto-obsessed nation after April crash: Report
The crypto market crash in April saw most cryptocurrencies lose more than 60% of their valuation from the top, leading to an overall downturn in trading activity, investor interest and venture capital investment. A recent study has highlighted nations’ growing curiosity and interest in crypto after the April crash. The research was based on Google Trends data of popular crypto search terms that often reflect increased interest in the crypto market. The search history of each nation was then compiled to give an overall search score. The countries at the top of the list appear to be most eager to buy the dip. The Coingecko research highlighted a significant rise in curiosity among Nigerians after the crypto market downturn in April. The Nigerian population searched the term ‘cryptocurr...
Nomad announces $19-million bounty for lost funds from recent hack
Nomad announced a bounty of up to 10% for the return of the stolen funds from the Nomad bridge. In a website announcement and tweet, the company publicly provided a wallet address for sending the funds. The bounty is applicable to anyone who comes forward from now on or already returned funds. At the time of writing, Nomad has recovered more than $20 million. The Nomad token bridge suffered a massive hack on Tuesday. This incident was among the largest in the history of crypto hacks, with nearly $200 million in crypto assets stolen. However, the platform wasted no time addressing its community and the hackers. Update: Nomad Bridge Hack Bounty (see below for details) Please send the funds to the official Nomad recovery wallet address on Ethereum: 0x94A84433101A10aEda762968f6995c...
Argo Blockchain keeps cashing out BTC to pay the debt to Galaxy Digital
Cryptocurrency mining firm Argo Blockchain continues to sell its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings to cut its debt to Michael Novogratz’s crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital. Argo sold another 887 Bitcoin in July to reduce obligations under a BTC-backed loan agreement with Galaxy Digital, the firm announced on Friday. With the average BTC price of $22,670, the sales totaled $20.1 million, accounting for a significant part of the maximum outstanding loan balance of $50 million in Q2 2022. As of July 31, 2022, Argo held an outstanding balance of just $6.72 million under the BTC-backed loan, the announcement notes. The latest sale comes shortly after Argo sold another 637 BTC in June 2022 for $15.6 million. The firm reported that by the end of June 30, Argo had an outstanding balance of $22 million on...
Binance Card users now have access to XRP, SHIB and AVAX
Binance announced on Friday that its Binance Card now supports three new altcoins. Card users can now access their holdings of Ripple (XRP), Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Avalanche (AVAX). The Binance Card allows its holders to “convert and spend cryptocurrencies in over 60 million online and physical stores.” However, the card is only available to European citizens and, according to the website, Ukrainian refugees. Prior to the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, Binance had intentions of expanding its card reach into Ukraine by sometime this year. With the latest addition, the card now supports 14 cryptocurrencies, including Cardano (ADA), Avalanche (AVAX), BNB, Bitcoin (BTC), Binance USD (BUSD), Polkadot (DOT), Ether (ETH), S.S. Lazio Fan Token (LAZIO), FC Porto Fan Token (PORTO),...
Coinbase hit with 2 fresh lawsuits amid SEC probe
Coinbase is now facing increased scrutiny from regulators, with the company now becoming the target of multiple lawsuits. The San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange, which is presently being investigated by the United States Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC), now faces two additional legal claims from two law firms. On Thursday, New York-based legal firm Bragar Eagel & Squire revealed that it would be suing Coinbase for making deceptive claims about its business practices. Pomerantz LLP has also filed a claim against the exchange, alleging that it is entitled to compensation for any losses incurred as a result of the defendant’s violations of federal securities laws. This lawsuit was filed to compensate the plaintiffs. In both complaints, plaintiffs claim that Coinba...
What will cryptocurrency look like in 2027? Here are 5 predictions
The year is 2027. It’s a time of great innovation and technological advancement, but also a time of chaos. What will the crypto market look like in 2027? (For those unfamiliar, that’s a line from the 2011 video game, Deus Ex.) Long-term predictions are notoriously difficult to make, but they are good thought experiments. One year is too short a period for fundamental changes, but five years is just enough for everything to change. Here are the most unexpected and outrageous events that could happen over the next five years. 1. The metaverse will not rise The metaverse is a hot topic, but most people do not have even the slightest idea of what it actually comprises. The metaverse is a holistic virtual world that exists on an ongoing basis (without pauses or resets)...
Meta enables Instagram NFT integration in over 100 countries
According to a Meta newsroom post updated on Thursday, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company has begun its nonfungible token (NFT) expansion across 100 countries in Africa, the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the Americas. This includes adding support for wallet connections with Coinbase Wallet and Dapper as well as the ability to post digital collectibles minted on the Flow blockchain. The initial rollout targets the popular social media app Instagram. One needs to simply connect their digital wallet to Instagram to post an NFT, the company said in its updated post. Third-party wallet integrations with Rainbow, MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Coinbase Wallet and Dapper Wallet are either complete as of Thursday or are coming soon. Supported blockchains at this time are Ethereum, Polygon and Flow. Ther...
