Euler Finance hacker starts returning stolen Ether
Chances that the hacker will return the entire loot of $197 million remain slim, as no more outbound transactions — other than the 3,000 ETH — were recorded at the time of writing.
The recent attack that drained $197 million from Euler Finance was dubbed the biggest decentralized finance (DeFi) hack of 2023 so far. However, this may not hold for much longer as the hacker reportedly had a change of heart.
On March 18, roughly 3,000 Ether
ETH$1,818 ($5.4 million) were returned to Euler Finance’s deployer address from the Euler Finance hacker’s address. Blockchain investigator PeckShield identified three transactions that were used to send the funds.
Cointelegraph confirmed that the hacker transferred 1,000 ETH per transaction to Euler’s deployer account. However, chances that the hacker will return the entire loot of $197 million remain slim, as no more outbound transactions were recorded at the time of writing.
On March 16, Euler Finance announced a $1 million reward to track down the hacker and retrieve the funds.
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The exploiter was able to drain $197 million through multiple transactions and later used a multichain bridge to transfer the funds from the BNB Chain to Ethereum.
Related: Euler Finance hacked despite 10 audits in 2 years, says CEO
Soon after a $1 million bounty was announced, the stolen funds were moved into the crypto mixer Tornado Cash.
Euler Finance demanded that the hacker return 90% of the funds within 24 hours to avoid possible jail time.
More than 280 blockchains at risk of ‘zero-day’ exploits, warns security firm
Dogecoin, Zcash and Litecoin have already patched the “critical” vulnerability, but hundreds of others may not have, risking billions’ worth of crypto.
More than 280 blockchain networks are at risk of “zero-day” exploits that could put at least $25 billion worth of crypto at risk, according to cybersecurity firm Halborn.
In a March 13 blog post, Halborn warned of the vulnerability it dubbed “Rab13s” — adding it has already worked with some blockchains, such as Dogecoin, Litecoin and Zcash, to institute a fix for it.
Halborn said it was contracted in March 2022 to conduct a security review of Dogecoin’s codebase and found “several critical and exploitable vulnerabilities.”
It later determined those same vulnerabilities “affected over 280 other networks” that risked billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies.
Halborn outlined three vulnerabilities, the “most critical” of which allows an attacker to “send crafted malicious consensus messages to individual nodes, causing each to shut down.”
Halborn said it was contracted in March 2022 to conduct a security review of Dogecoin’s codebase and found “several critical and exploitable vulnerabilities.”
It later determined those same vulnerabilities “affected over 280 other networks” that risked billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies.
Halborn outlined three vulnerabilities, the “most critical” of which allows an attacker to “send crafted malicious consensus messages to individual nodes, causing each to shut down.”
It added these messages over time could expose the blockchain to a 51% attack where an attacker controls the majority of the network’s mining hash rate or staked tokens to make a new version of the blockchain or take it offline.
Other zero-day vulnerabilities it found would allow potential attackers to crash blockchain nodes by sending Remote Procedure Call (RPC) requests — a protocol allowing a program to communicate and request services from another.
It added the likelihood of RPC-related exploits was lower as it requires valid credentials to undertake the attack.
“Due to codebase differences between the networks not all the vulnerabilities are exploitable on all the networks, but at least one of them may be exploitable on each network,” Halborn warned.
The firm said at this time it’s not releasing further technical details of the exploits due to their severity and added it made a “good faith effort” to contact all affected parties to disclose the potential exploits and provide remediation for the vulnerabilities.
Dogecoin, Zcash and Litecoin have already implemented patches for the discovered vulnerabilities, but hundreds could still be exposed, according to Halborn.
Circle’s USDC instability causes domino effect on DAI, USDD stablecoins
Following USDC’s depegging, three stablecoins — DAI, USDD and FRAX — also depegged from the U.S. dollar.
The stablecoin ecosystem felt an immediate effect as USD Coin
USDC$0.92 depegged from the U.S. dollar due to a subsequent sell-off after Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) did not process $3.3 billion of Circle’s $40 million transfer request. Given USDC’s collateral influence, major stablecoin ecosystems followed suit in depegging from the U.S. dollar.
DAI$0.91, a stablecoin issued by MakerDAO, lost 7.4% of its value due to USDC’s depegging. As of June 2022, $6.78 billion worth of DAI supply was collateralized by $8.52 billion worth of cryptocurrencies, confirms data from Statista.
DAI’s total crypto assets used for on-chain collateralization as of June 27, 2022. Source: Statista
Out of the lot, USDC represented 51.87% of DAI’s collateral, worth $4.42 billion. Other prominent cryptocurrencies include Ether
ETH$1,430 and Pax Dollar (USDP) at $0.66 billion and $0.61 billion, respectively.
As a result, DAI depegged from the dollar to momentarily touch $0.897. The stablecoin recovered to trade around the $0.92 mark at the time of writing, as shown below.
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USD Digital (USDD), a stablecoin issued by Tron, and fractional-algorithmic stablecoin Frax (FRAX) shared a similar fate due to adverse market sentiments. USDD responded to the USDC sell-off with a nearly 7.5% drop to trade at $0.925, while FRAX dipped even further to $0.885.
Related: USDC investor shells out $2M to receive $0.05 USDT trying to evade crash
The entire depegging ordeal started after Circle announced that $3.3 billion of its funds were not processed for withdrawal by SVB.
SVB was shut down by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation for undisclosed reasons. However, the California regulator appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as the receiver to protect insured deposits.
Binance custody partner clarifies Singapore licensing plans
Binance recently rebranded its custody arm, now called Ceffu, which launched in Singapore in November 2022.
Amid various reports about Binance trying to revive its crypto licensing plans in Singapore, the crypto exchange has set the record straight. Binance told Cointelegraph that Ceffu, its “independent institutional custody partner,” will apply for an institutional crypto custody license when Singapore’s central bank opens applications.
Singapore has established itself as a hub for crypto businesses owing to its flexible tax policies, access to diverse tech talent and convenient location, which allows companies to operate smoothly within the region in Asian time zones.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is expected to open up the crypto custody licenses for institutions after relevant amendments to their Payment Services Act. Cointelegraph reached out to Ceffu for insights on the Singaporean crypto market and its upcoming plans to offer crypto custody services to institutional clients.
Related: Binance CEO responds to Forbes claims: ‘They don’t know how an exchange works’
Athena Yu, vice president of Ceffu, told Cointelegraph that Singapore has a reputation for innovation, good corporate governance and a strong regulatory framework. Yu explained:
“Ceffu launched its Singapore business specifically to provide custody services to institutional investors. Once the relevant amendments to the Payment Services Act go live and the application for a custody license opens, Ceffu will make its official application with the MAS.“
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According to a report published by Nikkei, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange recently rebranded its custodial arm to “Ceffu,” which launched its institutional custody services in Singapore in November 2022. The crypto exchange didn’t reveal its financial relationship with the rebranded crypto custodian.
Australia introduces classification for crypto assets
The national regulators propose to distinguish four major types of products related to the crypto industry.
Following the global regulatory race, Australia opened the public consultation on its own taxonomy of crypto assets. The national regulators propose to distinguish four major types of products related to the crypto industry.
On Feb. 3, the Australian Treasury released a consultation paper on “Token Mapping,” announcing it as a foundational step in the Government’s multi‑stage reform agenda to regulate the market. It seeks to inform “a fact‑based, consumer conscious and innovation-friendly” approach to policy development.
The paper, based on the “functional” and technology-neutral method, proposes a number of basic definitions for all the things crypto.
At the first level, it outlines the key concepts of ‘crypto networks,’ ‘crypto tokens,’ and ‘smart contracts.’ According to the Treasury’s vision, a crypto network is a distributed computer system capable of hosting crypto tokens. Its primary function is to store information and process user instructions. The paper cites Bitcoin
ETH
$1,647 as the two most well-known public crypto networks.
Related: Australia bolsters crypto watchdogs in ‘multi-stage’ plan to fight scams
A ‘crypto token’ is defined as a unit of digital information that can be ‘exclusively used or controlled’ by a person who doesn’t administer the host hardware where that token is recorded. The concept of ‘exclusive use and control’ is a key distinguishing factor between crypto tokens and other digital records, according to the paper.
A ‘smart contract’ goes as the computer code that has been published to a crypto network’s database. It involves intermediaries or agents performing functions pursuant to promises or other arrangements or functions being performed by crypto networks in the absence of promises, intermediaries and agents.Advertisement
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Starting from these simple definitions, a paper proposes its taxonomy of four types of crypto-related products:
- Crypto asset services, which include lending and borrowing, fiat on/off ramping, crypto token trading, funds management, mining/staking-as-a-service, gambling, and custody.
- Intermediated crypto assets, which are the closest to a wide-spread definition of tokens: rights or licenses in relation to event access or subscriptions, intellectual property, reward programs, consumer goods and services, fiat money, non-financial assets, and government bond coupons. This class includes stablecoins.
- Network tokens — a “new type of currency” constituting peer-to-peer payment infrastructure. Think of your original BTC.
- Smart contracts exist on a spectrum from ‘intermediated’ to ‘public.’ The former is used by intermediaries in providing a service; the latter is used by parties to remove the need for an intermediary.
While the paper proposes to start the discussion on this taxonomy and doesn’t provide any legislative initiatives, its authors anticipate a relatively easy tailoring of existing laws for a large portion of the crypto ecosystem. It is the pockets of the ecosystem where functions are being ensured by the public, self-service software, which could demand the creation of a brand-new legislative framework.
The Treasury will wait for feedback up until March 3. The next major step of a national regulatory discussion will come with a release of a similar paper on the possible licensing and custody framework for crypto in mid-2023.
On Feb.1, His Majesty’s Treasury of the United Kingdom published its consultation paper for the crypto regulation as well. In it, the financial authority emphasized the lack of necessity in the separate legislation, given the capacity of the existing Financial Services and Markets Act to cover digital assets.
Polygon Announces Upcoming Hard Fork to Address Gas Spikes and Chain Reorganizations – Blockchain Bitcoin News
The Ethereum scaling blockchain, Polygon, has revealed plans to initiate a hard fork on Jan. 17, 2023. According to the team, the network upgrade will “reduce the severity of gas spikes” and “address chain reorganizations (reorgs) in an effort to reduce time to finality.”
Polygon Team Outlines Network Upgrades to Improve User Experience
On Jan. 12, 2023, the Polygon team told the community to “get ready for the hard fork” as developers have plans to upgrade the chain on Jan. 17, 2023. “The proposed hard fork for the Polygon PoS chain will make key upgrades to the network on Jan. 17,” the team tweeted. “This is good news for developers and users and will make for better user experience (UX). You will not need to do anything differently,” the developers insisted. Polygon (MATIC) developers have been discussing the upgrade since Dec. 2022.
The V0.3.1 Hard Fork aims to reduce gas spikes and address blockchain reorganizations (reorgs). A reorg is an occurrence in which a new chain’s branch emerges and supersedes the previously accepted blockchain branch. Reorganizations can cause previously confirmed transactions to be invalidated and replaced with new ones. In order to alleviate the reorg problem, Polygon plans to decrease the network’s sprint length from 64 to 16 blocks. “Doing so will decrease the depth of reorgs,” Polygon developers declare.
In order to reduce gas spikes, Polygon aims to change the “basefeechangedenominator” from the current value of 8 to 16. “This will help smooth out the increase/decrease rate in basefee for when the gas exceeds or falls below the target gas limits in a block,” according to the Polygon team’s blog post about the subject.
Polygon’s native token, MATIC, has recently entered the top ten standings in terms of crypto assets ranked by market capitalization. MATIC is up 23.4% over the last week against the U.S. dollar. However, Polygon’s current $0.987 per unit value is down 66.2% since the digital asset’s all-time high of $2.92 per unit on Dec. 27, 2021.
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What do you think about the proposed upgrade to the Polygon network? Will these changes improve your overall experience as a user or developer on the platform? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Polygon Announces Upcoming Hard Fork to Address Gas Spikes and Chain Reorganizations – Blockchain Bitcoin News
The Ethereum scaling blockchain, Polygon, has revealed plans to initiate a hard fork on Jan. 17, 2023. According to the team, the network upgrade will “reduce the severity of gas spikes” and “address chain reorganizations (reorgs) in an effort to reduce time to finality.
Polygon Team Outlines Network Upgrades to Improve User Experience
On Jan. 12, 2023, the Polygon team told the community to “get ready for the hard fork” as developers have plans to upgrade the chain on Jan. 17, 2023. “The proposed hard fork for the Polygon PoS chain will make key upgrades to the network on Jan. 17,” the team tweeted. “This is good news for developers and users and will make for better user experience (UX). You will not need to do anything differently,” the developers insisted. Polygon (MATIC) developers have been discussing the upgrade since Dec. 2022.
The V0.3.1 Hard Fork aims to reduce gas spikes and address blockchain reorganizations (reorgs). A reorg is an occurrence in which a new chain’s branch emerges and supersedes the previously accepted blockchain branch. Reorganizations can cause previously confirmed transactions to be invalidated and replaced with new ones. In order to alleviate the reorg problem, Polygon plans to decrease the network’s sprint length from 64 to 16 blocks. “Doing so will decrease the depth of reorgs,” Polygon developers declare.
In order to reduce gas spikes, Polygon aims to change the “basefeechangedenominator” from the current value of 8 to 16. “This will help smooth out the increase/decrease rate in basefee for when the gas exceeds or falls below the target gas limits in a block,” according to the Polygon team’s blog post about the subject.
Polygon’s native token, MATIC, has recently entered the top ten standings in terms of crypto assets ranked by market capitalization. MATIC is up 23.4% over the last week against the U.S. dollar. However, Polygon’s current $0.987 per unit value is down 66.2% since the digital asset’s all-time high of $2.92 per unit on Dec. 27, 2021.
Tags in this story
All time high, baseFee, BaseFeeChangeDenominator, better user experience, block, Blockchain, Blog Post, Chain, chain reorganizations, community, crypto assets, current value, Developers, Ethereum, gas spikes, Hard Fork, increase/decrease rate, key upgrades, Market Capitalization, matic, network upgrade, Polygon, Polygon (MATIC), Polygon developers, reorg problem, reorgs, Scaling, smooth, sprint length, target gas limits, team, time to finality, U.S. dollar, Upgrade, UX, V0.3.1
What do you think about the proposed upgrade to the Polygon network? Will these changes improve your overall experience as a user or developer on the platform? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Samsung investment arm to launch Bitcoin Futures ETF amid rising crypto interest
Hong Kong investors can now gain exposure to Bitcoin through Samsung’s new ETF listing, launching on Jan. 13.
In Hong Kong, the bell rings for Bitcoin
BTC$18,202. Samsung Asset Management Hong Kong (SAMHK), a subsidiary of Samsung’s investment arm Samsung Asset Management, is set to list the “Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF” on the Hong Kong stock market on Jan. 13.
The move comes amid a surge in interest from both the government and institutional investors in the region.
The ETF, or exchange-traded fund, will track the spot price of Bitcoin by investing in Bitcoin futures products listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). The ETF will primarily invest in the CME Bitcoin Futures, with some investments in the CME Micro-Bitcoin Futures.
Currently, Hong Kong is the only market in Asia where Bitcoin futures ETFs can be traded. The Samsung Bitcoin Futures ETF joins the Hong Kong Crypto Futures ETF, which began trading to the tune of $70 million in 2022. Other markets worldwide include Canada, the U.S., Australia, and some European countries such as Switzerland.
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Park Seong-jin, head of Samsung Asset Management Hong Kong, commented:
“Hong Kong is the only market in Asia where Bitcoin futures ETFs are listed and traded in the institutional market. It will be a new option for investors who are interested in Bitcoin as a competitive product that reflects their experience in risk management.”
This ETF listing will provide retail and institutional investors with a new way to gain exposure to Bitcoin, which may help to attract more mainstream investors to the cryptocurrency space. With Samsung’s reputation and brand power, the ETF could be an attractive option for investors who are looking for a way to invest in Bitcoin without buying and holding their own private keys directly.
The move by Samsung comes as the price of Bitcoin surpassed the $18,000 level, indicating a potential rise in positive sentiment among traders. Other cryptocurrencies have also followed suit, recording a recovery in the broader crypto market.
In 2022, Samsung Asset Management Hong Kong Limited held $1.4 bn assets under management, while the globally recognized brand of Samsung continues to be actively involved in the crypto space. The South Korean company, valued at over $300 billion, boasts a blockchain wallet while the flagship smartphone, Galaxy S22 comes with a preinstalled crypto.
The ETF is a further indication that the global brand is looking to capitalize on the growing interest in cryptocurrencies.
Fanatic sells 60% stake in Candy Digital amid ‘imploding NFT market’
The sports merchandise giant has got cold feet in the shrinking NFT market.
Sports merchandise firm Fanatics is divesting its stake in nonfungible token (NFT) company Candy Digital as confidence in the asset class wanes.
On Jan. 4, it was reported that Michael Rubin’s sports company Fanatics was offloading its majority 60% stake in the NFT startup.
Fanatics was started in 2011 and has become a known name in sports merchandising and e-commerce, valued at $31 billion.
However, the crypto bear market has hit the NFT sector hard in 2022, and Rubin’s firm is seemingly now looking to turn away from “standalone” NFT businesses.
The investor group led by Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital will be purchasing the stake in Candy Digital, according to CNBC. In an email shared with the outlet, Rubin wrote:
“Over the past year, it has become clear that NFTs are unlikely to be sustainable or profitable as a standalone business.”
He stated that divesting ownership in Candy Digital “allowed us to ensure investors were able to recoup most of their investment via cash or additional shares in Fanatics.”
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This was a favorable outcome for investors “especially in an imploding NFT market that has seen precipitous drops in both transaction volumes and prices for standalone NFTs,” he added. NFTs alone would not create much value, according to Rubin, who said:
“We believe digital products will have more value and utility when connected to physical collectibles to create the best experience for collectors.”
Fanatics acquired Topps trading cards for roughly $500 million in Jan. 2022. Furthermore, it acquired the rights to produce Major League Baseball trading cards and then NFTs following the launch of Candy Digital last year.
Related: What remains in the NFT market now that the dust has settled?
Fanatics raised $700 million in fresh capital in Dec. 2022. The funding will be used on potential merger and acquisition opportunities across its collectibles, sports betting, and gaming businesses, according to CNBC.
Candy Digital secured $100 million in funding in Oct. 2021 with a valuation of $1.5 billion at the time.
However, the NFT markets have shrunk considerably during the 2022 crypto winter. According to the Nonfungible.com market tracker, daily sales volumes have slumped from over 100,000 sales in January 2022 to around 15,000 today.
Cointelegraph reached out for comment from Fanatics and Candy Digital but had not received a reply at the time of publication.
Philippine Central Bank Thinks Stablecoins Could ‘Revolutionize’ the Payment System
Stablecoins have the potential to “revolutionize both domestic and cross-border payments,” Mhel Plabasan claimed.
Mhel Plabasan – a top executive at Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (the central bank of the Philippines), said the institution is highly in favor of stablecoins as they can aid the monetary system and ensure “affordable and faster” cross-border transactions.
The organization also plans to launch a pilot version of its CBDC by the end of 2022.
On that note, it is worth noting that the central banks of Israel, Norway, and Sweden collaborated with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to explore how CBDCs could take part in transnational payments.
Stablecoins Could Aid the Philippines’ Financial Wellbeing
During a panel discussion at Forkast’s “Crypto Rising: CBDCs & Stablecoins: The Asia Perspective,” Mhel Plabasan – Director at the central bank of the Philippines – said stablecoins could benefit the payment network of the country:
“We have seen it really has the potential to revolutionize both domestic and cross-border payment more affordable, faster, and even the possibility of using stablecoins to make cross-border remittance efficient.”
According to estimations, nearly 12 million people of Filipino origin live outside their homeland. Their number is the highest in the USA – over four million.
Despite advocating for embracing stablecoins, Plabasan argued that regulators should closely monitor new technology:
“That’s why it’s important for us to constantly engage the private sector [and] we learn together. We are part of the journey to get to improving digital payments using stablecoins,” he added.
The executive further revealed that the financial institution will soon launch its central bank digital currency (CBDC) in a pilot phase. Project CBDCPh, as the authorities called it, should see the light of day by the year’s end.
The BIS and the Central Banks
Speaking of CBDCs, it is worth mentioning the mutual endeavor between the Bank of International Settlements and the central banks of Israel, Norway, and Sweden, going by the name “Project Icebreaker.”
The entities joined forces to explore how such financial instruments could settle international retail and remittance payments. The team will check if CBDCs enable low-cost and faster transactions than traditional methods.
It will run through the end of 2022, while a final report with the results will follow during the first quarter of next year. Commenting on the matter was Beju Shah – Head of the BIS Innovation Hub Nordic Centre:
“This first-of-a-kind experiment will dig deeper into the technology, architecture, and design choices and trade-offs and explore related policy questions. These learnings will be invaluable for central banks thinking about implementing CBDCs for cross-border payments.”
Mithra Sundberg – a top executive at the Swedish central bank – said Sweden joined the project so it could double down on its e-krona efforts. The country’s authorities have been among the most active on the CBDC scene. Last year, the Riksbank said it should be ready with its digital currency by the end of 2026.SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored)Binance Free $100 (Exclusive): Use this link to register and receive $100 free and 10% off fees on Binance Futures first month (terms).
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