Kategorie: Crypto Markets

Hackers have so far stolen $718 million from DeFi protocols in October, which could yet be the biggest month for hackers, Chainalysis said in a report.

Total value hacked and the number of hackings across the decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystem has shot up over 2022, with billions stolen in what is turning out to be the biggest year for hackers in cryptocurrency.

According to blockchain security and analytics firm Chainalysis, October has seen 11 different hacks targeting DeFi protocols. As the month reaches halfway, hackers have syphoned more than $718 million through security exploits.

“After four hacks yesterday, October is now the biggest month in the biggest year ever for hacking activity, with more than half the month still to go. So far this month, $718 million has been stolen from DeFi protocols across 11 different hacks,” Chainalysis said in a report on Thursday.

Hackers now targeting DeFi protocols

The attacks have thinned across centralised exchanges, which bore the brunt of attacks in 2019. In the past two years, the attackers have shifted attention to DeFi platforms – with cross-chain bridges currently the most targeted.

Per Chainalysis, October has seen exploits at three bridges and with close to $600 million stolen from these platforms alone. The attacks account for 82% of stolen funds in the past two weeks and 64% of heist suffered in 2022.

4/ Cross-chain bridges remain a major target for hackers, with 3 bridges breached this month and nearly $600 million stolen, accounting for 82% of losses this month and 64% of losses all year. pic.twitter.com/lQySX2ljKt

— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) October 12, 2022

In terms of total value hacked in 2022, October is on track to surpass March. The number of hacks has also ticked up during the month, after declining since the March 2022 explosion.

The thefts recorded in October have helped push the amounts of crypto assets towards 2021 levels, and with more than two months to go, hackers could yet hit record levels.

“At this rate, 2022 will likely surpass 2021 as the biggest year for hacking on record. So far, hackers have grossed over $3 billion dollars across 125 hacks,” the analytics firm tweeted.

The latest attacks on Temple DAO for over $2.3 million in crypto tokens and another $100 million hack on Solana-based platform Mango, add to some of the biggest losses seen this year. These include the Wormhole and Ronin bridge exploits that resulted in $325 million and $625 million losses respectively.

As CoinJournal also recently highlighted, major crypto exchange Binance also recorded a cross-chain hack incident, pointing to the increased risk malicious actors pose to crypto and DeFi.

The post Hackers have already stolen $3 billion worth of crypto in 2022: Chainalysis appeared first on CoinJournal.

The US treasury has finned Bittrex exchange $24 million for violating sanctions issued by the United States against individuals in different countries around the world. According to the US treasury, Bittrex did not stop sanctioned individuals from Cuba, Crimea, Iran, Syria, and Sudan from using the exchange.

The US Treasury fine against Bittrex is one of the biggest fines that has been issued against any entity especially for contravening sanctions.

Where it all started

1,730 individuals that fell under the list of sanctioned individuals by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) were found to have used Bittrex between March 2014 and December 2017. It is reported that these individuals conducted about 116,421 transactions involving digital assets worth about $263.4 million.

It is important to note that Bittrex operated without a sanctions compliance program until December 2015, after which customer identity verification was enacted, followed by the retainment of a third-party vendor for the sanction screening process.

But even after putting in place measures to screen sanctioned individuals, Bittrex still lacked in its efforts leading to the issuance of a subpoena against it by the OFAC. The subpoena drove Bittrex to put in place multiple measures in a bid to curtail the number of violations.

The Treasury Department has noted this by saying:

“Bittrex subsequently implemented a number of other remedial measures, including implementing new sanctions screening and blockchain tracing software, conducting additional sanctions compliance training, and hiring additional compliance staff. Once implemented, these remedial measures substantially curtailed the number of Apparent Violations.”

The $24 million fine

To settle the fines of the aforementioned violations, specifically for allowing sanctioned individuals to transact with the exchange, Bittrex agreed to remit about $24.2 million.

It is however not the first time that the US Treasury has penalized a crypto exchange for violating sanctions. In February 2021, BitPay was fined $507,000 and BitGo was fined $98,000 for sanctions violations.

The post Bittrex fined $24 million for violating US sanctions appeared first on CoinJournal.

CACHE Gold, a DeFi protocol that supports fully backed, redeemable and regulated tokenized gold assets, has integrated Chainlink Proof of Reserve on the Polygon mainnet. After the integration CACHE Gold users can now verify on-chain cross-chain CACHE Gold tokens (CGT) on Polygon are fully backed by CGT tokens on Ethereum in a ratio of 1:1.

The latest Chainlink Proof of Reserve integration on Polygon builds upon the previous integration of Chainlink Proof of Reserve and Chainlink Price Feeds on the Ethereum mainnet. The integration on Ethereum helps users monitor the locked gold currently backing the CGT tokens. It also allows users to accurately verify that the token’s value accurately reflects the real-world market price of gold.

The combination of Chainlink integrations gives users an assurance that sufficient real-world gold reserves bake the CGT tokens on Polygon.

The CACHE Gold Token (CGT)

The CGT token is a fully backed, redeemable, and regulated tokenized gold asset. One CGT token represents one gram of pure gold stored in vaults around the world.

The CACHE Gold protocol ensures that the number of CGT tokens in circulation remains equal to the amount of stored physical gold. Every gram of the physical gold is tracked by the asset tracking platform GramChain and then verified by Chainlink Proof of Reserve and the proof is published on-chain.

The recurring verification enabled by Chainlink Proof of Reserve allows for transparency of the actual status of the reserves backing the tokens.

The assets (gold) long viewed by investors as safe-haven assets can now be used as a source of collateral in Polygon’s DeFi ecosystem.

Chainlink Proof of Reserve

Chainlink Proof of Reserve allows for the automation of smart contracts on-chain by keeping up-to-date reference contracts thus removing the need for manual audits. It also provides highly accurate and viable data by sourcing data from financially incentivized premium providers.

Chainlink Proof of Reserve Feeds are also decentralized at the oracle node level and data source thus removing central points of failure in the sourcing and delivery of external data to Polygon.

Lastly, Chainlink Proof of Reserve Feeds is transparent. They can be monitored by anyone in real time; a feature that allows any user to independently verify asset collateralization.

The post CACHE Gold integrates Chainlink Proof of Reserve on Polygon mainnet appeared first on CoinJournal.

Binance developers have today announced the release of the temporary urgent patch v1.1.16. The patch will fix the cross-chain infrastructure between the BNB Beacon Chain and the BNB Smart Chain after the recent $100 million cross-chain exploit.

The patch will re-enable cross-chain communication which had been temporarily hampered after the attack.

The v1.1.16 patch is more of a hard fork of the mainnet and the testnet. The Moran hard fork upgrade for the mainnet is expected to happen at block height 22,107,423 on October 12 at around 8 AM UTC while the upgrade for the testnet is expected to take place at block height 23,603,940 on October 11 at 8 AM UTC.

What the upgrade seeks to fix

In a nutshell, the upgrade will fix the vulnerabilities in the IAVL hash check, make the relayer whitelisted to the genesis, and introduce a block header in sequence check in the CrossChain Contract.

Validators will be required to check and upgrade with the patch immediately after the upgrade goes live since it is an emergency patch fix aimed at fixing issues and potential risks on the BNB Chain.

Binance developers have confirmed that users will be able to receive their funds immediately after the completion of the upgrade and the staking rewards will also recover the next day.

Afterwards, Binance will announce further improvements.

BNB token price continues to fall

The BNB price has been in a freefall mode since the BSC Token Hub exploit on October 7.

After a 5% drop on the very day of the exploit, the BNB token has dropped by a further 8%. At press time, it was trading at $271.22, which is way below its highs above $297 at the start of October.

The post Binance releases urgent patch to fix the cross-chain infrastructure after attack appeared first on CoinJournal.

Crypto exchange Coinbase has announced in a press release that it has received preliminary regulatory approval from Singapore’s monetary authority (MAS) to offer crypto services in Singapore. Following the in-principle approval, Coinbase can now offer “regulated digital payment token products and services in Singapore.”

Following the approval in Singapore, Coinbase has become one of the few crypto exchanges that have successfully gone through the painfully lengthy and rigid licensing process enacted by the MAS.

In an interview with Financial Times, the top fintech officer at MAS, Sopnendu Mohanty, claimed that the regulatory body had enacted the “painfully lengthy and rigid licensing process for institutions to prohibit bad behaviour rampant in the crypto sector.”

Coinbase expansion into Singapore

Coinbase has quietly been expanding its presence in Singapore has launched a technical hub in the region and increasing its efforts to hire Web3 personnel in the city-state.

Coinbase Venture arm has also invested in more than fifteen Singaporean Web3 startups in a push to boost crypto adoption in Singapore.

Besides announcing the regulatory approval, Coinbase’s press statement also added that the company’s CEO and co-founder, Brian Armstrong would be attending a stage event in Singapore alongside MAS’s chief fintech officer.

The statement reads:

“We are also excited to confirm that our CEO and co-founder, Brian Armstrong, will be taking the stage at the Singapore Fintech Festival on November 4th, in a fireside chat with Sopnendu Mohanty, the Chief Fintech Officer at MAS.”

In the recent past, Singapore has grown into a global finance hub housing a large number of fintech institutions, asset managers, hedge funds, insurance firms, and corporate banks. This growing pool of fintech institutions has also expressed a desire to explore the budding crypto industry including investing some stake in some of the sector’s digital assets.

Prior to Coinbase’s in-principle approval, the MAS had granted in-principle approval to Crypto.com.

The post Coinbase gains regulatory approval to offer crypto services in Singapore appeared first on CoinJournal.