Crypto Weekly Roundup: Lazarus’s $55M CoinEx Hack And More

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The notorious North Korean hacker group Lazarus is once again targeting crypto platforms across the globe, the latest victim being CoinEx. Let’s find out more. 

Bitcoin

Investors are bracing for a crypto crash as FTX gets the green light to sell its crypto holdings.

Bitcoin-only exchange Swan has announced a partnership with BitGo to launch a Bitcoin-only trust company.

Bitcoin came within a whisker of making a new lower low late Monday. A bounce back to $25,850 happened instead.

Bitcoin is consolidating its move upwards on Tuesday, with a recent green candle that has taken it above $26,000 once more.

Bitcoin finished the week under $26,000, continuing to bleed out slowly, with altcoins faring much worse, losing more than $65 billion in market cap over the previous 10 weeks.

Brian Armstrong has announced that Coinbase will implement the Lightning Network, a move that has been encouraged by Jack Dorsey and Michael Saylor. 

Ethereum

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s X account was targeted by a hacker, who managed to steal nearly $700,000 from unsuspecting users after sharing malicious links through the hacked account. 

Altcoins

The Polygon network has published its roadmap for the upcoming Polygon 2.0, which includes migration from MATIC to POL token and the staking layer deployment. 

Technology

After rigorous testing that spanned 1.5 months and the partial mainnet launch in the middle of August, BNB Chain developers finally released opBNB to the public.

Avalanche’s testnet recently recorded a transaction rate of 143,322 transactions per second (TPS) with its HyperSDK blockchain upgrade, addressing the ‘blockchain trilemma’ of decentralization, security, and scalability.

Ed Felten, co-founder and chief scientist at Offchain Labs, which developed Arbitrum, revealed that Arbitrum’s fraud proofs have not been invoked on its mainnet since its inception in August 2021. 

Visa has been closely observing advancements in blockchain scalability, particularly with recent innovations in Ethereum’s “Layer 2” networks and new ecosystems like Solana. 

MetaMask, the most widely used Web3 wallet, has announced the launch of a new mechanism that enables its use outside the EVM ecosystem. 

Telegram Messenger has incorporated a self-custodial crypto wallet based on The Open Network (TON) for its vast user base, which boasts over 800 million monthly active users.

Business

Once one of the largest digital derivatives traders under the Digital Currency Group (DCG) umbrella, Genesis has decided to halt all its trading services. 

Hong Kong-based Web3 investor Animoca Brands has announced that it has raised $20 million for its Mocaverse project through a funding round led by CMCC Global. 

An email sent by Coinbase to certain Indian users caused panic among Indian traders, fearing that Coinbase was giving notice to close operations in India.

Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder has left the company while the crypto exchange is in the middle of laying off one-third of its workforce. 

LayerZero Labs has been accused by FTX of improperly withdrawing $21 million in anticipation of FTX’s financial collapse in November 2022.

Payments behemoth PayPal has announced the launch of a new service that will allow users to convert their crypto into US Dollars. 

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has created controversy with a marketing move that sees the firm rebrand from Huobi to HTX, echoing the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. 

Deutsche Bank AG has cemented a partnership with Swiss crypto technology firm Taurus SA, propelling the bank closer to unveiling its digital assets custody service.

Mark Karpeles, the founder and former CEO of the now-defunct Bitcoin exchange Mt Gox, has reacted to FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried’s persistent request to be released to prepare for his trial. 

Regulation

Bybit has rejected earlier reports suggesting its imminent exit from the UK market due to forthcoming marketing regulations.

On September 12, a judge delivered a 20-year prison sentence to Karl Sebastian Greenwood, a key co-founder of OneCoin, for orchestrating a colossal cryptocurrency scam that swindled over $4 billion from countless investors across the globe.

Joseph Lubin, the co-founder of Ethereum, has stated that given previous tech history, clear heads will prevail in the ongoing SEC crusade against crypto.

The CFTC enforcement director has called decentralized finance exchanges an “obvious threat.” Coinbase CEO expresses concerns over this viewpoint. 

Web3

Sony Network Communications has made a $3.5 million investment in Startale Labs with the aim of advancing the development of a global Web3 infrastructure.

Security

Billionaire investor, TV personality, and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, had one of his crypto wallets hacked, with the attacker siphoning off nearly $900,000 worth of crypto. 

North Korea’s Lazarus Group, a notorious state-backed hacking organization, is suspected to be the mastermind behind the recent $55 million hack of cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx. 

The hackers behind the $41 million hack of crypto casino Stake have moved $328,000 million worth of Polygon (MATIC) and BNB (BNB) tokens in their latest move following the exploit. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.