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Deribit Hackers Turns to Tornado Cash to Launder Stolen Funds

by Blockchain NewsNovember 7, 2022

The hacker who exploited the Deribit exchange’s hot wallet has started moving the stolen funds using the sanctioned cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash.

According to data from Etherscan, the attacker has sent a total of 1,610 ETH since the exploit amounting to a sum of $2.54 million per the current price of Ethereum pegged at $1,577.84, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Blockchain security outfit PeckShield was the first to spot the transfers being done as of Saturday with a total of $350,000 moved at the time. According to the Etherscan data, the balance on the hacker’s address is pegged at 7,501.37 ETH, with substantially more funds to launder.

Attempts to trace the funds have now been complicated by the involvement of Tornado Cash. The crypto mixing protocol receives funds, splits them into several units, and cryptographically sends them to unrelated addresses in a manner where the source of the funds can be obfuscated.

The role Tornado Cash plays in the laundering of stolen funds such as this accounts for why the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has banned the protocol. The regulator alleged that about $7 billion have been processed through the protocol thus far with a significant sum linked to the cybercrime syndicate Lazarus Group from North Korea.

Despite the protests from the crypto industry, the ban on Tornado Cash has been upheld, however, it has not stopped the Deribit exploiter from taking advantage of the shield it provides.

Since Blockchain.News reported the exchange’s $28 million exploit earlier this month, the protocol has taken several initiatives beyond the halting of transactions. The exchange said it has routed its transactions to Foreblocks for its robust security services, advising its users to open new Bitcoin (BTC) and supported altcoin addresses on Fireblocks to continually access its products and services.

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Crypto Exchange Gate.io Floats its Payment Solution Dubbed Gate Pay

by Blockchain NewsNovember 7, 2022

Gate.io, one of the top cryptocurrency trading platforms in the world, has announced the launch of its payment gateway dubbed Gate Pay.

As announced by the exchange, the Gate Pay offshoot is its latest attempt to deepen its resolve to foster the broad adoption of crypto and blockchain technologies.

Gate.io said Gate Pay will bring cryptocurrencies as a means of payment for individuals merchants and businesses as a whole at no cost whatsoever. Considering the assets involved, the exchange said users may be required to pay a network fee, depending on which of the 21 cryptocurrencies it is currently supporting with the service.

“Gate Pay is our next major commitment to further crypto adoption. It will bridge the gap between Web 3.0 and daily life, reducing the barriers for users and merchants to utilize cryptocurrency fully,” said Dr. Lin Han, CEO, and Founder of Gate.io.

The trading platform Gate Pay technology platform will be accessible to the more than 12 million users it has accrued over the years. From the current 21 digital assets it is supporting, the exchange has assured that the Gate Pay outfit will come to support an additional 130 cryptocurrencies in the near future.

The new service is a detour from its core trading offerings which it extended to institutional investors back in May. Exchanges are known to launch their payment offshoots in order to complement their push into the broader e-commerce world. For Gate.io, however, it hopes to add other value-added services over time including the pivot into C2C transfers and promotional handouts amongst many other things.

“From release to later evolutions, Gate Pay will become an important step in promoting the use of cryptocurrency. To achieve this, Gate.io will constantly innovate new product concepts to enrich the functions of Gate Pay,” said Feng Zhou, Director of Gate Pay, Gate MiniApp.

The new payment outfits embrace is being pioneered by Uquid.com, a Web 3.0 e-commerce platform

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Tagged : Cryptocurrency Exchange / Cryptocurrency Payment / Exchanges / Gate.Io

Digital Euro May Have Transaction Limits for Retail Users

by Blockchain NewsNovember 7, 2022

With the European Central Bank (ECB) now developing the prototype for its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) otherwise known as the Digital Euro, more details are now surfacing based on its potential operational dynamics.

Speaking recently at the “Towards a legislative framework enabling a digital euro” conference hosted by the European Commission (EC), Fabio Panetta, a board member of the ECB said the bank may impose some restrictive limits on transactions for the retail individual users.

While Panetta acknowledged that the ECB has not made any final decision on what the limit will be, he said €3,000 is a good example of a limit the bank can impose on the Digital Euro as a store of value. He went on to say that the total number of transactions that can be done by individuals may also be capped at 1,000 per month.

“If we give access to a means of payment, which is relatively limited, there are no transaction costs because you only need to have a smartphone,” Panetta said, “There will be risks that people could use this possibility to move, for example, their deposits of other banks or their money out of financial intermediates.”

The ECB board member also highlighted on an important subject regarding the Digital Euro and how it will co-exist with fiat. According to him, both versions of the Euro will complement each other to make for a robust financial ecosystem within the bloc.

“Digital euro would be an additional option for retail payment — not a challenge to the function of the financial system,” he said confirming that the new money is not designed to replace cash, a position that echoes similar words from ECB President Christine Lagarde.

Other Central Banks have maintained this position, noting that their CBDC will not displace cash nor make them obsolete. This argument brings a lot of doubt considering the wide embrace of people to the digital economy and the financial evolution which has largely relegated cash in some countries.

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Tagged : CBDC:Europe / Digital Euro / Ecb / Euro / Fabio Panetta

Google Cloud Says Running Validator on Solana Blockchain

by Blockchain NewsNovember 7, 2022

Google Cloud is running a validator on the Solana blockchain, according to an announcement from the company.

The validator will soon add new features that will allow integration for Solana (SOL) developers and node runners.

Following the news on Saturday, SOL rose 12% to around $36.80. It has come back down to $31.51 at the time of writing.

Google Cloud announced on Twitter that besides the validator, the tech giant is also working to add its Blockchain Node Engine to the Solana chain in 2023.

The Blockchain Node Engine is a “fully-managed node hosting service” that already supports the Ethereum blockchain.

Google Web3 product manager Nalin Mittal at Solana’s Breakpoint conference in Lisbon said, “we want to make it one-click to run a Solana node in a cost-effective way.”

Google further added that it has initiated a move that will “make it easier for the Solana developer ecosystem to access historical data” by indexing Solana data and adding it to its BigQuery data warehouse.

According to Mittal, the feature will launch in the first quarter of 2023.

Mittal also added that “select startups in the Solana ecosystem” has been chosen to try its credits program. There are up to $100,000 in Cloud Credits available for applicants, he said.

Google Cloud introduced the Blockchain Node Engine in late October to help Web3 developers build and deploy new products on blockchain-based platforms.

The latest on the list of firms leveraging blockchain technology functions is Google, with its newly released Blockchain Node Engine aimed at helping web3 development.

Per the company’s announcement, the new solution was debuted to cater to developers’ needs instead of using self-managed nodes that are quite tasking and require consistent management.

Web3 firms who feel the necessity for devoted nodes can now use Google Cloud’s Blockchain Node Engine to relay transactions, deploy smart contracts, and read or write blockchain data with the expected dependability performance and security from Google Cloud compute and network framework.

Blockchain Node Engine is a fully managed node-hosting service that can minimize the need for node operations.

According to Google, Ethereum will be the first blockchain the Google Cloud’s Blockchain Node Engine will support so as to allow developers to deliver fully managed Ethereum nodes with secure blockchain access.

Developers who use the Blockchain Node Engine can benefit from a more straightforward and faster deployment of new nodes with a specified desired region and network (mainnet, testnet), said Google.

In addition, the Blockchain Node Engine would offer security configurations that can help turn aside unapproved access to assigned nodes. It would also provide fully managed operations by allowing Google Cloud to actively monitor and restart the nodes when needed during an outage.

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Tagged : Blockchain / Crypto / Google / Industry / Solana

Binance Liquidates Entire FTT Holdings

by Blockchain NewsNovember 7, 2022

Binance is liquidating its remaining FTT holdings, according to the crypto exchange CEO Changpeng “CZ“.

However, CZ has not clarified the reason behind liquidating FTT – the native token of rival FTX exchange, besides simply stating “recent revelations that have come to light.”

“As part of Binance’s exit from FTX equity last year, Binance received roughly $2.1 billion USD equivalent in cash (BUSD and FTT). Due to recent revelations that have came to light, we have decided to liquidate any remaining FTT on our books. 1/4”

CZ also took to Twitter to publicly announce that the liquidation is not a tactic to take a shot at FTX.

In response to the latest move from CZ, Alameda’s CEO, tweeted that her trading firm’s financial condition is more robust. She also offered a buyback offer by responding to the Binance CEO’s post.

“@cz_binance if you’re looking to minimize the market impact on your FTT sales, Alameda will happily buy it all from you today at $22!”

The move from Binance has come after weeks of criticism put against FTX’s founder and Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried for his regulatory proposals.

Bankman-Fried published a proposal on October 19, which has turned controversial. It is a detailed blueprint for regulatory oversight and industry standards in the digital asset space.

According to critics, Bankman-Fried’s proposal to set industry standards threatens DeFi’s core ideology and threatens the space’s leading DeFi teams and platforms. However, Bankman-Fried has taken a step back to reconsider his stance on DeFi regulation.

The funds held by Binance were received from FTX last year as part of its exit from an equity position in the company, which it had since 2019.

FTX bought out Binance’s stake in the company with a $21 billion mix of FTT and stablecoin native to Binance’s exchange, BUSD, according to CZ.

He added that the liquidation would take a few months due to the ongoing negative market sentiments and limited liquidity. Furthermore, the company is aiming to conduct liquidity in a manner that will reduce the impact on the market.

Nonetheless, FTT has dipped 9.5% over the past day to $23.03 from $25.55, according to CoinGecko.

Data from Etherscan showed that 22,999,999 FTT, worth $584 million at the time, was transferred from a wallet to Binance’s exchange on Saturday. While CoinGecko stated that the amount is equivalent to 17% of the circulating supply of FTT.

CZ has confirmed that the amount was shifted funds, which are part of Binance’s move to liquidate its position in FTT.

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Tagged : Binance / Bitcoin / Blockchain / Crypto / FTT / FTX / News

Crypto Prices This Week: Market Cap Stays above $1 Trillion, BTC, ETH, DOGE, SHIB, AR

by Blockchain NewsNovember 7, 2022

The cryptocurrency market has posted a bullish performance, marking a good beginning this week. The market started to rally above the trillion-dollar mark towards the end of last month as the appeal for riskier assets increased amid the current bearish macroeconomic environment.

On Monday 02:46 am EAT (East African Time), the market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies was $1.08 trillion, down 2.63% in the last 24 hours. The overall volume of the crypto market during the last 24 hours reached $64.26 billion, a 41.82% fall, according to data platform Coingeko.

With the new month remaining bullish for the landscape, here is a look at five cryptocurrencies investors should watch out for this week.

Bitcoin has maintained its good performance and was trading higher at $21,251.06 after losing 0.31% of its value over the past 24 hours. The flagship cryptocurrency hit a seven-week high on Saturday after a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report in October showed that the labour market remains surprisingly strong, even as the Feds pushes to cool down the economy.

The Altcoin market also continues to see similar bullishness. Ethereum’s price was down 3.26% compared to the prior week at $1,576, but the crypto’s performance has remained among the best this week. The token took advantage of the crypto market’s late push in October, surging all the way to $1,655 and trying to move closer to its $1,700 target. In a span of two weeks, ETH managed to rise by 30%, but the impacts of the Federal Reserve’s 75 basis point interest rate hike caught up with it and made it drop all the way down to $1,500 once again.

Meanwhile, Dogecoin was trading at $0.1243, down 3.17% in the last 24 hours but has gained 96.41% in the last 30 days. Elon Musk’s recently completed his $44 billion takeover of Twitter last week triggered the crypto’s bullishness.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) has also been doing well, with a 25% increase in the past two weeks, though showing consolidation in the past 24 hours, indicating a 2% decline. A lot of the growth that the two meme coins posted is because of the attention it got from Elon Musk buying Twitter. The wild thought that Dogecoin and Shiba Inu could be used on Twitter created massive buying pressure.

Arweave (AR) is also among the most profitable since last week and continues to do well currently. Its current uptake is associated with Meta as the tech firm is undertaking a massive Instagram revolution, requiring third-party crypto projects’ involvement in infrastructure solutions.

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Tagged : Arweave / Bitcoin / Crypto / Dogecoin / Ethereum / Market Cap / Price / Prices / Shiba Inu

Circle to Introduce Euro Coin and Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol to Solana in Early 2023

by Blockchain NewsNovember 7, 2022

USD coin issuer and digital financial technology firm Circle is now set to expand its Euro Coin and cross-chain transfer protocol to the Solana ecosystem in the first half of 2023.

The Euro Coin is a euro-backed stablecoin issued by Circle in June. In contrast with its counterpart USDC coin, which is pegged to dollars, the Euro Coin is pegged to the Euro. Currently, the Euro coin is live on the Ethereum blockchain, and by Q1 2023, it will also be live on the Solana blockchain.

According to Sheraz Shere, Head of Payments at Solana Labs, the launch of the Euro coin on Solana creates new use cases for instant FX, layout optionality for traders with a new base currency, as well as allow the lending and borrowing of Euro Coin on a blockchain. The Euro coin will be available alongside USDC as a payment currency in Solana Pay.

Exchanges such as FTX will add support deposits, withdrawals, and trading of Euro Coin when it goes live on Solana. Additionally, Solana-based DeFi (Decentralized finance) protocols such as Raydium and Solena have also shown interest in supporting the stablecoin when it launches, according to Circle.

Furthermore, aside from the Euro Coin, another project Circle will be launching on the Solana blockchain is its cross-chain transfer protocol which was initially announced in September. The protocol would go live at the beginning of 2023 on Ethereum and Avalanche, then expand to Solana in the first half of 2023.

Cross-chain transfer protocol allows the native transfer of USDC across different blockchains instead of using wrapped tokens. Interoperability platform Wormhole plans to support the Cross-chain transfer protocol implementation once it’s live on the Solana blockchain.

Speaking of Circle, the firm recently revealed it has set up a new reserve fund dubbed the Circle Reserve Funds with BlackRock to help manage its stablecoin’s reserves.

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Tagged : Avalanche / Blockchain / Circle / Ethereum / Euro / Solana / Stablecoin / USDC

OpenSea Creates Tool for NFT Creators to Enforce Royalties On-Chain

by Blockchain NewsNovember 7, 2022

NFT marketplace, OpenSea has revealed its plan to create a tool to help creators on its platform enforce creator fee payments.

It is probably not a new thing whether enforcing or not royalties which have been argued topics in the industry ever since it was introduced. While some platforms have already concluded their side of the argument, platforms such as OpenSea were yet to reveal their opinions.

OpenSea finally disclosed its thoughts and plans on enforcing royalties on-chain on Sunday. By kicking off with its plans, the platform stated, “With many marketplaces choosing to stop enforcing creator fees, to put it bluntly, the last few months haven’t felt WAGMI.”

Stating that It’s clear many creators want the ability to enforce fees on-chain, the platform believes that royalty enforcement should be the creators’ choice and not the decision marketplaces have to make for them.

“So we’re building tools we hope will balance the scales by putting more power in creators’ hands to control their business model,” OpenSea noted on Twitter. The platform would be launching a tool for the enforcement of royalties on-chain for new collections that would be launching on its platform.

According to OpenSea, the on-chain tool is a simple code piece that creators can add to their NFT contracts, as well as their existing upgradeable contracts. The code restricts NFT sales to marketplaces that impose creator fees.

Starting on Tuesday, November 8, OpenSea will enforce creator fees only for new collections that use the on-chain enforcement tool. In the coming months, the platform will also introduce additional tools serving a similar purpose and solicit community feedback on the developments.

As for collections already existing on the platform, OpenSea stated it won’t make any changes until December 8.

Overall, the platform is looking to consider different approaches to this topic, which include the proceedings of enforcing off-chain fees for some subsets of collections, permitting optional creator fees, or partnering on other on-chain enforcement options for creators.

Notably, this news comes amid the controversy of royalties enforcement in the industry. Speaking of which, NFT marketplace Magic Eden recently settled to opt for an optional royalties method for its users, giving buyers the power to either choose to pay royalties or not when purchasing NFTs on its platform.

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Tagged : Blockchain / NFT / Opensea / Royalties

US SEC Issues Summons to Influencers Promoting HEX, PulseChain, PulseX

by Blockchain NewsNovember 7, 2022

According to a media report released on Sunday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reportedly issued a subpoena to influencers who were found promoting crypto coins, such as HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX.

Over the weekend, Swedish researcher Eric Wall shared an official letter from the SEC dated November 1, which was addressed to the influencers. The letter said the influencers might possess documents and data relevant to an ongoing investigation conducted by the SEC staff.

The regulator accompanied the letter with a subpoena that was issued as part of the investigation, which demanded the influencers in question produce the required documents by November 15.

In recent years, the world has seen the rise of crypto influencers – individuals who use their social media platforms to promote cryptocurrencies and blockchain-based projects.

There is no doubt that crypto influencers have the potential to reach a vast audience and bring much-needed attention to the industry. However, many have recently been promoting dubious crypto projects and pump-and-dump schemes.

Recently, social media mogul Kim Kardashian has been involved in what the class action case considered a pump-and-dump scheme.

Last month, Kim Kardashian was charged $1.26 million by the SEC for failing to disclose that she was paid £250,0000 to promote EthereumMax cryptocurrency on her Instagram page.

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said the case was a “reminder” that celebrity endorsement did not necessarily make a product worth investing in.

In August, Ben Armstrong, a prominent crypto influencer on his YouTube channel popularly known as BitBoy Crypto, narrated how he partnered with a cryptocurrency project that ended up being a scam.

The problem is that most influencers are not financial experts and may not fully understand the risks involved in investing in cryptocurrency. Furthermore, influencers are paid to promote particular projects, which means that they may not be impartial.

Working with reputable brands with a good track record and transparency about their fees may help mitigate some of the risks associated with crypto investment.

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Tagged : CRYPTO INFLUENCERS / HEX / Legal / PULSECHAIN / PULSEX / Subpoena / US SEC

US SEC Issues Summons to Influencers Promoting HEX, PulseChain, PulseX

by Blockchain NewsNovember 7, 2022

The regulator accompanied the letter with a subpoena that was issued as part of the investigation, which demanded the influencers in question produce the required documents by November 15.

In recent years, the world has seen the rise of crypto influencers – individuals who use their social media platforms to promote cryptocurrencies and blockchain-based projects.

Recently, social media mogul Kim Kardashian has been involved in what the class action case considered a pump-and-dump scheme.

Last month, Kim Kardashian was charged $1.26 million by the SEC for failing to disclose that she was paid £250,0000 to promote EthereumMax cryptocurrency on her Instagram page.

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said the case was a “reminder” that celebrity endorsement did not necessarily make a product worth investing in.

In August, Ben Armstrong, a prominent crypto influencer on his YouTube channel popularly known as BitBoy Crypto, narrated how he partnered with a cryptocurrency project that ended up being a scam.

Working with reputable brands with a good track record and transparency about their fees may help mitigate some of the risks associated with crypto investment.

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Tagged : CRYPTO INFLUENCERS / HEX / Legal / PULSECHAIN / PULSEX / Subpoena / US SEC