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From-za is a pogon of the POLOGONE OF ABCELE ORBCITS
Orbcity (Orb) - a decentralized virtual world in which users can explore and control their own cities using tokens and NFT, switch to layer 2 Ethereum blockchain to the Polygon (Matic) network.
The areas in large cities such as Zurich, Cape Town or Bangkok can be purchased at the Opensea trading platform. The last time the Orbcity area in San Francisco was sold for 15 ETH, which was about $ 24,000.
According to the Orbcity team, to increase efficiency, the crypto project collaborates with industry heavyweights as Animoca Brands, OKX and Huobi.
Originally built on the public blockchain Klaytn (Klay), designed for metavselnaya and games, Orbcity switched to Polygon.
Thanks to this news, the price of Orb token over the past seven days has increased by 100%, since the beginning of the year the price dynamics has reached a plus by 300%. It turns out that there are altcoins whose price increases due to the development of the crypto project.
Staking is now available for MATIC ERC-20 tokens
MATIC token holders will have the opportunity to earn on staking, thanks to the partnership between Polygon and BitGo
Throughout the crypto winter, the Polygon network has been actively entering into strategic partnerships and alliances. The latest achievement is a joint project with the cryptocurrency depository BitGo, which will open the amazing world of staking for MATIC holders of the ERC-20 format.
As a result of the partnership between Polygon and BitGo, MATIC holders will receive a wallet and custody functionality. In addition, those who have ERC-20 tokens will be able to receive additional income by placing coins on staking.
Chen Fang, COO of BitGo noted:
“By offering new features to MATIC holders, we are giving investors the ability to securely store assets and use tools that will help them secure their future.”
The Polygon team announced that they successfully completed the Delhi hard fork on January 17th. This massive update should cut gas fees and address the issue of blockchain reorganization. However, many community members were unpleasantly surprised, because only 15 validators participated in the vote on the fork.
Previously, the project has already been criticized because of the high degree of centralization.
Mateusz Rzeszowski, management coordinator at Polygon, clarified the update process on Twitter. As of January 18, all active validators have upgraded to Delhi. The Polygon forum also reports that the new version of the network is validating 3.5 billion staked MATIC tokens.
The MATIC rate is declining this week. However, over the past day, the coin has consolidated in a narrow range. At press time, it is trading at $0.9548, up 2.4% from its opening level.
Yuga Labs blacklisted NFT trading platforms
The Sewer Pass includes code that blocks NFT transactions from wallets owned by Blur, SudoSwap, LooksRare and NFTX, according to Simon Kusart, director of data at Block Research. LooksRare and Blur have an additional royalty system, while NFTX and SudoSwap don't pay royalties either.
The move is the latest salvo in the ongoing NFT royalty war. By blacklisting these marketplaces, Yuga Labs is joining other NFT creators in blocking royalty evading platforms from transactions with their NFTs.
In September, QQL blacklisted X2Y2, another NFT marketplace with optional royalties, due to the fall of the NFT QQL Mint Pass. X2Y2 reacted to the blacklisting by saying "When someone else can decide where you can transfer your NFT, you are no longer the true owners."
Sewer Pass had $1.3 million in trading volume an hour after launch, and nearly $5 million worth of ETH had accumulated four hours after launch.
Exchanges liquidate nearly $500 million short positions
Bitcoin has been steadily rising since the middle of last week. Over the past seven days, its capitalization has increased by more than 23% to $410.615 billion.
The BTC exchange rate strengthened to $21,315 on the night of Tuesday, January 17th. Against the background of the growth of digital currencies in the futures market, a large-scale liquidation of positions took place. Exchanges have closed nearly $500 million worth of short-term positions in the last four days.
The market has experienced the largest liquidation since October 2022, according to data from Coinalyze. For example, on January 13 alone, OKX, Binance, and Huobi platforms canceled $256 million, $125 million, and $42 million short positions, respectively.
Analysts note that all leading altcoins have shown explosive growth.
Ethereum (ETH), Polygon (MATIC) and Solana (SOL) soared over 20% in a week. The capitalization of the cryptocurrency market is approaching $1 trillion.
Creator of NFT-project CryptoZoo has developed a payment plan for investors
Logan Paul revealed in a YouTube video that he created a refund plan for his troubled NFT project CryptoZoo.
In 2021, Paul and his team started building a collectible NFT project on Binance Smart Chain CryptoZoo. However, growing dissatisfaction with him prompted Paul to launch a three-stage program to return money to investors.
He said he would allow disgruntled investors to exit the project and burn their underlying CryptoZoo tokens at a floor price of 0.1 ETH ($144). While Paul has committed 1,000 ETH ($1.4 million) to the redemption plan, payouts are also possible in BNB.
Paul also stated that he and his manager Jeff Levin would burn their own tokens to deprive them of their financial potential.
He also added that he will conduct an internal investigation and audit, and any funds received during this process will be returned to the community.
At the same time, he announced that he plans to finalize and launch the game and the trading platform.
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Shiba Inu is in second place in the ranking of reliable cryptocurrencies
The Shiba Inu digital asset (SHIB) was ranked second in the ranking of the most trusted cryptocurrency projects, compiled by cybersecurity company CertiK.
SHIB earned 95 out of 100 possible points on three criteria:
Security level;
Market indicators;
attitude from the crypto community.
The Shiba Inu smart contract, created on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, successfully passed the audit, and experts were unable to detect critical errors.
At the same time, 34 bugs found were fixed. In addition, SHIB’s market capitalization level has exceeded $5 billion, so the coin’s price is quite difficult to manipulate.
In CertiK's ranking of crypto-memes, SHIB also scored 95 points and shared the first spot with Baby Doge Coin (BABYDOGE) issued on the BNB Chain network.
Experts found 10 errors in the smart contract of this token, and the creators of the virtual currency corrected eight of them. For this reason, BABYDOGE is currently ranked 55th on the list of the most secure digital assets.
Telecommunications Authority of Nepal requires to block cryptocurrency-related resources
The order of the State Telecommunication Authority of Nepal (NTA) says that recently the country has recorded a massive use of digital technologies that provide for payment for services in virtual currencies that are not legally recognized as monetary instruments.
The Agency draws the attention of all interested parties that this activity is illegal and is regarded as a financial crime.
The NTA requires all Internet service providers, including email networks, to restrict access to websites, applications, online networks and gaming portals that allow any use of cryptoassets.
The regulator warns that failure to comply with the requirements of state authorities, as well as “encouraging” Internet users to use cryptocurrency, is an activity punishable by law.
Last August, the Central Bank of Nepal informed the public of its intention to introduce legislative amendments defining its powers and responsibilities for issuing a digital version of the Nepalese rupee.
Polygon paid y00ts $3M to move from Solana
Leading non-fungible token (NFT) developer DeLabs has received a $3 million grant from Polygon to move the DeGods and y00ts projects off the Solana blockchain.
The head of DeLabs spoke about this in Discord. Earlier, he said that projects are moving to other blockchains due to the fact that they have exhausted their possibilities on Solana, and did not comment on the rumors that the y00ts team received money from Polygon.
DeGods and y00ts are two of the best NFT collections on Solana. Thus, the disclosure confirms Polygon's commitment to attracting strong projects from other chains.
In a new statement, the founder of y00ts and DeGods claims that the team received large sums of money but decided to work with Polygon anyway. Frank also tried to preempt criticism that might arise from the disclosure of the compensation received:
“We didn't make this deal for the money. This is just a nice bonus and we will use it effectively. We did this because it's the most exciting direction for y00ts as a project," he wrote.
According to him, DeLabs will spend money on expanding the team, as well as launching and scaling the NFT incubator. This will allow to create better projects and enter into new partnerships.
Over the past 24 hours, the minimum prices for tokens from the DeGods and y00ts collections have increased by 16% and 10% to 575 SOL and 163.69 SOL, respectively. WarDaddyCapital analyst noted that since the announcement of the migration from Solana NFT, y00ts and DeGods have updated their ATH.
Metaverses may soon become the object of close attention of regulators
The trend of last year and this year is the Metaverses. They are developing rapidly, more and more brands are turning their attention to them. Metaverses open up huge opportunities for both ordinary users and corporations.
For example, LG Electronics has already entered into a partnership with the developer of the metaverse Oorbit to develop the technology of virtual worlds in their TVs. This is reported by VentureBeat, referring to the company's announcement at CES 2023.
Through the use of cloud streaming technology, Oorbit customers will be able to attend virtual concerts on Pixelynx's Elynxir, as well as games without separate devices.
As stated earlier, the Metaverse is evolving at an accelerating rate, and as the results of the Elliptic Connect study show, this may soon lead to close attention and regulators.
This is due to the fact that in the past year, major brands have shown increased interest in virtual worlds. According to Elliptic Connect experts, a growing number of companies are exploring the economic opportunities offered by the Metaverses.
At the same time, they are still constrained by technical limitations and the inability to quickly profit from their practical implementation in their infrastructures.
As large companies begin to increasingly use the Metaverse, this will lead to the fact that regulators will try to use mechanisms to control their activities in virtual worlds.
According to Elliptic Connect research, at least 58 percent of users believe that over the next 5 years, the Metaverse will offer companies unique opportunities to scale their operations and generate profits.
According to Citibank analysts, by 2030 the Metaverse industry could be worth up to $13 trillion. This indicates that virtual worlds have significant investment potential.
So expect even more brands to enter the Metaverse this year, as well as more scrutiny from regulators.
Most Bitcoin Miners End 2022 With Debts
According to the Hash Rate Index report, public bitcoin (BTC) miners have debts of more than $4 billion. In anticipation of rising prices, industry representatives rushed to buy ASICs, resorting to soft loans.
However, due to the fall in the price of bitcoin, skyrocketing electricity prices, declining market prices for mining rigs, and record high levels of mining difficulty, 2022 has become an extremely difficult period for players in the sector. However, some hold up better than others.
On Jan. 3, Bitfarms announced that the company had sold 1,755 BTC for a total of $29.9 million in December 2022. The firm used the funds to pay off $16.5 million of its BTC-backed loan, as well as pay off $2.0 million in debt. associated with the equipment.
Bitfarms was also able to renegotiate miner purchase agreements, resulting in $45.4 million being canceled without penalty, while establishing a $22.4 million credit on prepaid prepaid deposits that will apply to future purchase agreements.
In 2022, the company mined 5,167 BTC ($86.1 million at current prices) for all of 2022, and outstanding debt at the end of the year was $47.0 million.
At the same time, Stronghold Digital Mining announced that it had entered into an agreement to convert $17.9 million of its debt into preferred shares with a par value of $23.1 million.
Preferred shares will not earn interest or dividends and, in turn, can be converted into ordinary shares (with negligible par value) at $0.40 per share, close to the market value of $0.44.
Others were less fortunate: Greenidge signed a $74 million debt restructuring deal with creditor NYDIG. The future deal will provide credit relief by restructuring the company from an independent bitcoin miner to a hosting site for NYDIG bitcoin mining rigs.
Core Scientific, one of the largest players in the sector, has managed to secure a $37.4 million loan but is still in bankruptcy.
BAYC NFT Collection Ends 2022 with a Low Price of 69 ETH
According to The Block Data Dashboard, Yuga Labs' Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT project ended the year with a floor price of around 69 ETH, or $82,740.
This year, BAYC held the highest floor price of any NFT project, only briefly dropping below another Yuga Labs CryptoPunks collection in November. At its peak, BAYC's lowest price in May 2022 reached 144.9 ETH, or $409,720.
In 2022, Yuga Labs NFT projects showed the highest sales. Of the 12 largest NFT transactions this year, 8 were related to the CryptoPunks, BAYC or Mutant Ape Yacht Club collections from Yuga Labs.
In 2022, Yuga Labs faced some challenges, for example, on December 9, a class action lawsuit was filed against the company related to the non-disclosure of celebrity support for tokens.
Crypto company COTI introduced an update on changing fees
COTI, an enterprise cryptocurrency solutions company that is also the developer and issuer of the Djed stablecoin on the Cardano network, has unveiled an important update to its project.
It includes a new fee model that will come into effect as early as mid-January 2023.
We are pleased to introduce an updated treasury fee structure in line with the feedback we have received from our community. We believe this structure is fair, transparent and in line with our long-term vision.
The official COTI blog on Medium says that the deposit fee has been halved to 0.25%. Commissions for depositing and withdrawing funds have changed even more globally and are now related to the duration of the deposit.
In other words, the longer the deposit is kept in the treasury, the lower the withdrawal fee, but it will be at least 0.4%.
As part of the update, commissions have been introduced that depend on the risk of liquidation of the COTI deposit. They are charged on deposits with a multiplier and range from 1% to 5%.
January is shaping up to be a busy month for COTI as the Djed stablecoin, co-developed with founding company Cardano, will be launched on the mainnet.
Djed is an ADA over-collateralized stablecoin running on the Cardano network. In addition to the launch of the stablecoin, a service for accepting payments in Djed called DjedPay will be launched.
DEX Exchange Trader Joe Launches Mainnet on Arbitrum
The expansion of the scope of the most widely used Avalanche application is an important trend for crypto protocols. They are being launched on multiple chains in hopes of growing and reaching a larger user base from a smaller pool as transactions are shrinking on Tier 1 blockchains.
Trader Joe plans to continue its expansion into other networks that are active in decentralized finance (DeFi) and the expected growth of the ecosystem, Trader Joe marketing and communications leader Blue has revealed.
The goal of DEX is to expand the use of its new Automated Market Maker (AMM), a technology that is the biggest innovation since Uniswap V3, Blue said. According to DeFiLlama, Uniswap V3 currently has the highest cumulative trading volume of any DEX.
According to Block Data, Arbitrum and Optimism, both of which are layer 2s built on top of Ethereum that inherit its security properties, have seen a steady increase in transactions this year. Meanwhile, Tier 1 blockchains have seen a decline over the same period.
Japanese regulators will lift the ban on foreign stablecoins
In 2023, the Japan Financial Services Agency (FSA) may lift the ban on the circulation of stablecoins issued abroad. This will affect such stablecoins as USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT) and others. The money transfer limit will be set at 1 million yen ($7.5 thousand) per transaction.
Representatives of the institution said that after the revision of the Cabinet of Ministers and the development of guidelines, they plan to apply the new rules in accordance with the Law on Payment Services.
For domestically issued stablecoins, the issuer will need to prepare collateral assets as proof. Issuers are limited to banks, funds transfer companies and trust companies.
Japanese journalists noted that as an anti-money laundering measure, stablecoin distributors would also be required to record transaction information and submit it to regulators.
The Financial Services Agency (FSA) passed the revised Payment Services Act back in June 2010 and it will be the first time changes have been made to cryptocurrencies. The document should introduce rules for virtual currencies and stablecoins, as well as limit the rights to issue currencies.
Behind the system changes is the assumption that stablecoins will be used as a payment method using government-promoted Web3 technology. In addition, the Japanese authorities have stated that this type of asset will allow for fast and low-cost cross-border transfers.
Ubisoft cancels development of secret blockchain video game with NFT elements - media
A French video game developer has canceled the creation of a new game project based on the blockchain with elements of non-fungible tokens, the media found out
Ubisoft has canceled the development of its gaming blockchain project, codenamed Project Q. GamesHub writes about this with reference to the French company. What exactly caused the cancellation of development is not disclosed.
There are few details around Project Q, but Ubisoft positioned the project as a multiplayer video game in which players could "own their experience." What exactly was meant by the wording of ownership is not clear.
The gaming industry believes that Ubisoft wanted to monetize the player experience through non-fungible tokens (NFTs), writes GamesHub. Officially, the company neither confirmed nor denied these rumors. The company assured that NFT would not be in the game, but the journalists noted that the developers did not fully clarify the plans for the project.
This is not the first time that a French video game developer has canceled blockchain-related products. For example, back in April 2022, the company stopped supporting its shooter Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, in which it introduced an NFT marketplace called Quartz.
As the editors wrote earlier, the gaming community, as well as the Ubisoft employees themselves, were not happy with the company's rapid movement towards the blockchain industry. Previously, resellers inflated the prices of NFT tokens in Quartz to absurd values, expressing their protest against the company's policy in this way.
Ubisoft itself tried to defend its position on the NFT to the last. Earlier, the company's top managers Nicolas Poiret and Didier Genevois said in an interview with the media that gamers underestimate the potential that NFTs can give them.
According to them, players are overly sensitive to the topic around the harmful effects of non-fungible tokens on the environment, as well as speculation around the blockchain market. Top managers of Ubisoft assured: they introduced NFT solely for the sake of gamers. It’s just that gamers “do not understand [it] yet,” the company believed.
Analysts predicted the further dynamics of Ethereum
A local sale has begun on the cryptocurrency market, against which the main altcoin has lost about 3.5% over the past 24 hours. As of January 19, the asset reached $1,527.
If we evaluate the dynamics of the ether on the daily interval, then it is near the key support level of $1509. It is noteworthy that the moving averages SMA 9 and SMA 20 are crossed in an upward direction, which indicates a local bullish trend.
As for the RSI indicator, its line on the daily interval is in the oversold zone. This could be a harbinger of a potential bearish correction. Experts suggest that the price will probably correct closer to the SMA 20 at $1410.
Well-known cryptocurrency analyst Michael van de Poppe commented on Ethereum's current momentum on Twitter. He also believes that in the near future the quotes of the main altcoin will decrease slightly. According to the expert, now there may be a correction to the $1460 area.
Near this mark, it will already be possible to consider potential long positions. In the future, a new wave of growth will form and quotes will most likely reach the supply zone at the level of $1556.
Visa Included Alchemy Pay in the List of Official Service Providers
According to the processing company of the Visa system, Alchemy Pay will act as a “connecting gateway” between traditional finance and cryptocurrencies. Now, through the Alchemy Pay service, transactions are processed to purchase cryptocurrency using fiat money.
Visa's global network has about 4 billion users. According to company representatives, the integration of the Alchemy Pay service will greatly facilitate digital payments to customers, merchants, financial institutions, enterprises, strategic partners and government agencies.
According to the analytical agency TokenInsight, amid information about the inclusion of Alchemy Pay in the list of official Visa service providers, the price of the Alchemy Pay token ($ACH) increased by 41.39% and is trading at $0.013120.
Earlier, the Huobi cryptocurrency exchange announced that it had partnered with Visa to issue a co-branded Huobi Visa card, which the marketplace calls its main product for customers.
Huobi Exchange News for the Second Week of January 2023
Cryptocurrency journalist and columnist Colin Wu spoke in his weekly report on the main news of the Huobi trading platform over the past week, as of January 15, 2023.
Recently, the exchange has been under a barrage of criticism, and many users have suggested that the company is facing bankruptcy.
According to Wu, the highlight of the week was that Huobi listed the MASK/USDD, ATOM/USDD, AVAX/USDD, LINK/USDD trading pairs. Spot trading fees for the above pairs have been waived from January 9 to June 30, 2023.
In addition, it became known about the delisting of such virtual assets as ABT, ATP and 33 other tokens. These digital currencies will be delisted at 11:00 Moscow time on January 16, 2023. The withdrawal service will remain available to users.
In addition, Huobi Korea has begun preparations to acquire shares in Huobi Global link. More than half of the existing securities of the first of them belong to the founder of Huobi Global, Lin Li.
Wu also recalled: Tether Ltd. coordinated with the Huobi exchange to complete the exchange by converting USDT tokens from the Ethereum network (ERC-20) to TRON (TRC-20) worth $400 million.
Last week, Huobi burned 653,000 Huobi Tokens (HT) valued at $4.17 million. The marketplace’s net revenue in the fourth quarter of last year was only $20.87 million, while the turnover of spot and cryptocurrency derivatives on Huobi reached $124.7 billion..
Finally, entrepreneur Justin Sun, who became one of the Huobi executives at the end of 2022, assured that he is ready to spend up to $1 billion to purchase assets owned by the Digital Currency Group (DCG).
The businessman also said that he had previously planned to provide a serious amount of money to help the FTX site, but the deal did not take place for a number of reasons beyond his control.
Huobi announces partnership with Solaris to launch debit card in EU
Huobi has announced a partnership with European financial services provider Solaris to launch debit cards that will convert digital currencies to fiat. The cards will be supported by the international Visa system, which will allow holders to use them all over the world.
It is reported that users who live in the European Economic Area (EEA), which includes 27 states, will have access to the card from the second quarter of this year.
This is just the first step, Solaris chief strategy officer Andrea Ramoino said, as the company plans to expand payment options for its users in the EEA and other regions in the future. So far, companies are only considering further initiatives in this direction.
Users are promised a user-friendly interface, and those who use Huobi’s own HT token are rewarded in the form of cashback. In the future, the company wants to closely link its token with cards. Also, the crypto exchange intends to offer users a number of advantages of its own loyalty program.
Huobi delisted 33 different tokens in one day. The company said it feared unaccounted risks and poor trading activity.
Online activity is on the rise at Solana
Many have already written off Solana, but the blockchain activity on the network is growing. This trend has resulted in the price of SOL hitting a two-month high.
On-chain activity on the Solana network is showing signs of recovery. Transaction and active account volumes have returned to October 2022 levels, with active addresses rising to 240,000, according to analytics platform Messari.
According to Solscan, network throughput is currently around 3,735 transactions per second (TPS). In total, 132 billion transactions were carried out on the network.
However, the charts show a sharp decline in transaction success on January 12th. This may indicate that the network is again suffering from performance issues.
The value of the Solana NFT ecosystem also returned to previous levels and reached $470 million.
Coin98Analytics reports that Solana has the fourth highest number of active addresses in the last week.
The increase in activity is largely due to the BONK memcoin airdrop, the price of which fell by 80% in a week. On January 12, Solana co-founder Raj Gokal tried to defend his offspring on Twitter:
“I think we can forget about it and get back to serious thinking about how to take advantage of the insane network performance and battle-tested infrastructure,” he wrote.
The authorities of Argentina proposed to declare income in cryptocurrencies
To do this, they plan to use preferential tax rates. The project is called “On the Externalization of Argentine Savings” and its main goal is to combat money laundering in the country. It is noteworthy that, according to the bill, Argentines will be required to declare their income in cryptocurrencies under oath.
The incentives are as follows: those who declare income within 90 days after the law enters into force will be able to pay only 2.5% capital gains tax on their crypto assets. The rate will increase every 90 days until it reaches the ceiling of 15% - that is, the standard rate in force in the country.
The bill should also encourage citizens to declare their other assets, whether it be real estate, stocks or fiat currency. Moreover, the project will oblige to place assets, both within the country and abroad, in banks approved by the Central Bank of Argentina.
Currently, Argentina, according to Chainalysis, is one of the twenty countries leading in the implementation of cryptocurrencies. According to the New York Times, more than a third of Argentines buy or sell cryptocurrencies at least once a month.
Experts predict an increase in DeFi hacks in 2023
Dmitry Mishunin, founder of the cryptocurrency auditing company HashEx, believes that the number of hacker attacks on DeFi will increase in 2023.
Hackers have become smarter, more experienced and have learned to look for bugs. The cryptoindustry is still rather young, and all develop at the same time therefore it is difficult to get ahead of malefactors much — Mishunin said.
Employees of the blockchain security firm CertiK agree with Dmitry’s position and suggest that this year the number of hacks and exit scams will definitely not decrease. A particularly tasty morsel for criminals will be bridges between networks, attacks on which brought them about $1.4 billion in 2022.
Beosin Managing Director Tommy Deng noted that many decentralized services are making efforts to secure their digital platforms, but there is no 100% protection against cyber attacks in the world. In this regard, the number of DeFi hacks will not decrease until the demand for the services they provide starts to fall.
DeFi sector lost $3.64 billion due to hack attacks in 2022
According to a report by blockchain security company LianAn Technology, the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector lost $3.64 billion due to hack attacks in 2022.
This is 47.4% more than in 2021. Then the losses amounted to 2.44 billion dollars. The number of incidents has increased despite the sharp decline in the overall value of the DeFi sector by 80% during the year.
The amount lost in cross-chain bridge breaches across 12 incidents was $1.89 billion, the highest in the category. In general, the majority of exploits were on the Ethereum, BNB Chain and Solana blockchains.
Of the 167 significant incidents in 2022, 51.5% of hacks occurred in audited projects, and 48.5% in unaudited ones. Overall, according to LianAn Technology, 38.7%, or $1.40 billion, was laundered through the Tornado Cash crypto mixer. During the year, it was possible to recover assets in the amount of $289 million.
The total volume of blockchain-related crimes amounted to $13.7 billion in 2022. Money laundering incidents topped the list with $7.33 billion, followed by DeFi hacks (3.6 billion), multi-level marketing scams (1 billion) and scams (830 million).
In addition to the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, 243 cases of fraud were recorded during this period, in particular, Rug Pull schemes (“pulling the carpet”), in which a total of $425 million was stolen.
LianAn Technology called 2022 a "dark" year for the security of the global blockchain industry. The report notes that in 2023, it is necessary to decide how to respond to hacker attacks, quickly create a global regulatory framework, and apply technical innovations to address security threats.
According to CertiK, cybercriminals damaged $62 million worth of cryptocurrency projects in December. In total, in 2022, about $3.7 billion was lost as a result of scams and hacks, which was the worst result on record.
Former CFO of SPAC pleads guilty to embezzlement of $5 million for investments
Former CFO of several Special Purpose Acquisition (SPAC) companies plead guilty to embezzling more than $5 million from them
Cooper Morgenthau pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a scheme to embezzle more than $5 million to trade crypto assets and meme stocks.
Morgenthau, 35, who was the top financial officer at the African Gold Acquisition Corp., admitted to misconduct that lasted a year and a half starting in June 2021, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York reported Tuesday, Jan. 3. go.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said he committed fraud and agreed to a ban on his employment as an officer or director of a public company.
“[Morgenthau] admitted that he abused the trust of his public and private investors by stealing millions of dollars from them to trade meme shares and cryptocurrencies,” said Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
According to the SEC, Morgenthau transferred more than $1.2 million in African Gold money to his personal accounts, which he spent or lost trading mostly in meme shares. Morgenthau then fabricated bank statements for African Gold's accountants and auditor to hide the hole in the balance sheet, the regulator claims.
The SEC said that in an attempt to cover its losses, Morgenthau raised about $4.7 million for two other companies: Strategic Metals Acquisition Corp. I and Strategic Metals Acquisition Corp. II. In addition, according to the SEC complaint, he used some of the money to cover his losses in African Gold and then withdrew that money again to trade cryptocurrencies.
African Gold discovered the withdrawal in August 2022, fired Morgenthau and reported his activities to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Now both cases against Morgenthau are in the US District Court, Southern District of New York.
After the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange last November, the SEC announced the start of the fight against cryptocurrency companies and the adoption of tougher measures regarding their regulation.
According to commission chairman Gary Gensler, the SEC will now take a closer look at the work of crypto firms, so they should start following the rules and register with the agency as soon as possible.
Buying Gopax will allow Binance to return to the South Korean market
The world's largest cryptocurrency trading platform Binance is close to completing the acquisition of South Korean crypto exchange Gopax. Thus, after a two-year hiatus, Binance will once again enter the market of an Asian country.
Previously, Binance worked in this market through its subsidiary, but was forced to close it due to disagreements with regulators.
Citing a local media report, popular blockchain journalist Colin Wu wrote that Binance “recently completed its due diligence on the purchase of Gopax.”
Binance planned to announce the purchase around Christmas, but this announcement was delayed due to a long discussion of the cost. In total, 41.2% of the shares were acquired from the current CEO of Gopax, Lee Jun-Hang.
Gopax is one of the top 5 digital asset exchanges in Korea, along with Coinone, Upbit, Corbit and Bitsum.
Binance's Voyager deal to be reviewed by federal committee
As court documents have shown, the agreement between Binance.US and bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital could be reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
According to the notice, the results of the review "may affect the ability of the parties to complete transactions, the timing of completion, or the relevant conditions."
In such matters, bankruptcy courts take CFIUS reviews among other potential national security concerns into account when determining the qualifications of a bidder, the document says.
By outperforming other bidders such as rossTower, Wave Financial and INX, Binance US sought to secure a deal with Voyager that would quickly restore its customers' access to their locked funds.
Under the terms of the deal, which is currently under review, users will eventually have access to their digital assets and receive payouts from Voyager on Binance US.
To get started, Binance US offered to make an initial deposit of $10 million and pay Voyager an additional maximum of $15 million in expenses.
Argo Blockchain sells Helios facility to Galaxy Digital
To avoid bankruptcy, Argo Blockchain had to sell the Helios facility. The company also received a $35 million loan. Following the suspension of trading on the NASDAQ, the company announced in a press release that it was selling the Helios facility to Galaxy Digital Holding for $65 million.
Argo promises to reduce total debt by $41 million, improve liquidity and simplify the operating structure. However, the restructuring was primarily carried out in order to preserve operations. Mining devices remain at the Helios site and continue to be used.
Located in Dickens County, Texas, the Helios facility includes approximately 50,000 mining rigs spread over an area of 11,000 square meters with a capacity of 200 megawatts.
Argo Blockchain, like other miners, has experienced financial difficulties over the past few months. The reasons for this were the fall in the price of bitcoin and the rise in energy prices.
Crypto exchange Rubic lost more than $1.4 million due to an exploit
Cryptocurrency exchange Rubic was hacked resulting in a $1.4 million loss
Cryptocurrency exchange Rubic was hacked, the platform lost $1.4 million, writes the PeckShield service.
According to him, the attacker sent 1100 ETH to the Tornado Cash protocol, which complicates the recovery of lost funds. After analyzing the process, the PechShield security team concluded that the root cause of the attack was that the protocol incorrectly whitelisted USD Coin (USDC) tokens on the router.
As a result, attackers exploited this vulnerability through the routerCallNative function to call the USDC contract. They also used the transferFrom interface to receive USDC tokens from users who are admitted to the RubicProxy contract.
Rubic immediately stopped all contracts to "prevent further damage" upon learning of the hack and warned its customers not to use the platform until the situation was resolved.
“Our contract was compromised because the USDC address was whitelisted for direct interaction with Rubic,” the platform said in a statement.
Now the exchange is investigating the causes of the incident. Rubic will also conduct audits with two independent companies in the coming weeks for further investigation.
Rubic said it would reimburse the 49 addresses affected by the exploit and advised those affected to "contact support." However, the exchange did not provide details on when exactly it would resume operations. The platform is expected to continue operating in the coming weeks.
As a result of the attack, the platform's RBC token dropped by more than 26% in 24 hours, falling in price to $0.01348. Before the attack, the price of RBC was $0.0183.
Bank of England urges regulation of cryptocurrencies 'before problems arise'
Cryptocurrencies are increasingly being integrated into the traditional financial system, so a regulatory framework is needed before “systemic problems” arise. This was stated by Deputy Governor of the Bank of England John Cunliff in a conversation with Sky News.
According to him, regulation is necessary to protect retail investors and the financial system as a whole. In particular, the British authorities are already considering steps in this direction.
“We had banks, investment funds and others who wanted to invest in this [cryptocurrency]. I believe that we should think about regulation before [digital assets] are integrated into the financial system and before we have potential problems, ”Cunliffe emphasized.
Earlier, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England proposed to regulate digital assets by analogy with traditional finance. He also pointed out that decentralized protocols do not yet provide an effective way to manage risk.
