Monat: August 2024

• CleanSpark said in a press release on Thursday that it has acquired its first Bitcoin mining site in Wyoming.
• The company executed 75 megawatts of power contracts, with 30 MW for the first site expected online by end of 2024. 
• A second site will bring the next 45 MW to CleanSpark’s Wyoming hashrate.

CleanSpark has announced that it executed 75 megawatts of power contracts and added to its growing capacity with the acquisition of a new 30 megawatts Bitcoin mining site in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

This is the company’s first site in the location. When it becomes operational, it will add more than 2 exahashes per second to the Nasdaq-listed BTC miner’s hashrate, CleanSpark said in a press release.

Meanwhile, the company also eyes a second site in the area, with closing of a deal for the real estate set to see the rollout of an additional 45 MW to the Wyoming operations. This second site coming online will add 3 EH/s to CleanSpark’s hashrate.

Operations at first site expected before year end

According to CleanSpark, the Cheyenne-based facility is a fully immersion-cooled site – the second such facility in the company’s growing portfolio. The miner expects operations to go live before the end of the year.

“On the heels of the University of Wyoming announcing the launch of its Bitcoin Research Institute and Senator Lummis introducing the Boosting Innovation, Technology and Competitiveness through Optimized Investment Nationwide (BITCOIN) Act, we are thrilled to expand in a state so publicly supportive of our industry. Working together with local, state and national leaders, CleanSpark plans to grow its footprint beyond Cheyenne, throughout the beautiful state of Wyoming,” Zach Bradford, CEO of CleanSpark, said in a statement.

CleanSpark will deploy the new S21 immersion XPs at the new site, tapping into the latest Bitcoin mining machines. The XPs are currently the most powerful and efficient of BTC mining machines.

CleanSpark recenty acquired GRIID Infrastructure

With the addition of Wyoming, CleanSpark now increases its presence into three states. The miner’s portfolio includes data centers in Georgia, Mississippi, and Wyoming, as well as co-locations in Tennessee and New York.

The company also disclosed its acquisition of Tennessee-based miner GRIID Infrastructure.

Once the all-stock deal worth $155 million at the time finalizes, CleanSpark will adds about 100 MW of power in 2024. It targets reaching 200 MW by end of next year and 400 MW by end of 2026 for the Tennessee facility.

CleanSpark is one of the US-based Bitcoin mining companies that recently met with former US president Donald Trump, a meeting that saw the 2024 presidential candidate say America needs to be at the forefront of mining BTC.

Trump also spoke at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee in late July.

 

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• Decentralized governance hedge fund platform Convergence exploited.
• 58M CVG tokens minted and swapped.
• CVG token value plunged 99% from $0.12 to $0.0004 following the hack.

On Thursday, the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Convergence experienced a severe breach, resulting in a dramatic collapse of its CVG token.

The exploit involved the creation of 58 million CVG tokens, which were then exchanged for approximately $200,000 worth of wrapped Ether (wETH) and crvFRAX stablecoin.

Hacker exploited a vulnerability in Convergence’s codebase

This malicious activity was carried out using a vulnerability within the protocol’s codebase, according to web3 security firm QuillAudits.

The attacker leveraged this flaw to mint a massive amount of CVG tokens, subsequently swapping them for wETH and crvFRAX through Curve’s liquidity pools. Following the token exchange, the attacker converted the funds into Ether (ETH) and transferred them to Tornado Cash, a privacy tool designed to obscure transaction trails.

This breach led to an estimated $210,000 in financial losses, while CVG token holders faced a catastrophic decline in the token’s value.

Before the attack, CVG had a fully diluted valuation of $17 million. However, the token’s price plummeted by 99% in the Curve liquidity pools, dropping from $0.12 to a fraction of a cent, trading at $0.0004.

Frens, @Convergence_fi was just hit by an exploit resulting in a loss of around $210,000. 🚨

The attacker minted 58 million $CVG tokens & swapped them for 60 WETH & 15.9k crvFRAX.

The price of $CVG at the time of exploit was $0.1155. It dumped 99% and is currently at $0.000413… pic.twitter.com/43MJGjQg2i

— QuillAudits ➡️ Web3 Security 🥷🛡️ (@quillaudits_ai) August 1, 2024

Convergence asks users to pause activities on the platform

In response to the incident, Convergence has advised users to refrain from interacting with the protocol to avoid further risk.

🚨 URGENT COMMUNICATION 🚨

Convergence has been hacked. Please don’t interact with the protocol.

— Convergence (@Convergence_fi) August 1, 2024

The protocol’s team and security experts are currently investigating the breach to prevent future vulnerabilities and mitigate the damage caused by the exploit.

This incident underscores the ongoing risks associated with DeFi protocols and the importance of robust security measures in safeguarding digital assets.

The post DeFi Protocol Convergence hit by major hack, CVG token collapses appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Casper Network has resumed operations after resolving the recent security breach.
• Two blocks were removed; a new Casper-node binary was deployed and scanned.
• Other July breaches affected WazirX ($230M), Compound Finance ($24M), and more.

The Casper Network has resumed operations following a temporary halt due to a security breach.

On July 31, 2024, at 3:18 pm UTC, 64 validators, representing 85% of the staked CSPR, unanimously agreed to resume network validation. This decision marked the network’s recovery and return to full functionality.

Two blocks removed from Casper blockchain

The incident highlighted the critical importance of vigilance and proactive measures within the ever-evolving realm of blockchain technology.

The Casper team, in collaboration with validators, engineers, and other stakeholders, successfully resolved the breach through a coordinated and decentralized effort.

The disruption, occurring mid-era rather than at its conclusion, presented significant technical challenges.

To address the issue, the network removed two blocks containing four transactions, effectively orphaning these transactions and their impacts on the blockchain.

A new Casper-node binary and standard configuration files were deployed, and a global scan of the blockchain was conducted to detect any other potential exploits.

Validators played a crucial role in the recovery process, manually initiating the upgrade and implementing the new version of the software. This step required precise real-time synchronization.

Once at least 66.7% of the consensus stake approved the node restart, the problematic blocks were removed, and block creation resumed.

July saw several high-level crypto security breaches

While Casper Network has made substantial progress in addressing the breach, other crypto entities faced similar incidents in July.

Notably, Indian exchange WazirX experienced a $230 million theft and is strategizing user fund recovery.

Additionally, breaches affected Compound Finance ($24 million), Li​.Fi ($8 million), Bittensor, and Rho Markets ($8 million each).

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