Hacks against decentralized finance protocols have increased almost eightfold when compared to the first quarter of last year, according to DeFi bug bounty platform Immunefi. In Q1 of this year alone, over $1.22 billion has been identified as having been stolen or rugged from budding protocols. That’s a 7.9 times increase when compared to some $154.6…

For most crypto investors, there is nothing more important than making a return on their investment. Thanks to the volatility, this can be done quickly or it can be a hugely difficult task. That’s why crypto airdrops are an inexpensive way to make additional returns on your portfolio. After all, airdrop tokens are free and…

A recently published policy brief from the United Nations recommended developing nations take action against crypto, warning of risks associated with leaving the industry unregulated. In the document titled “All that glitters is not gold,” first published in June, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) stated the disadvantages posed to these nations by…

The Responsible Financial Innovation Act introduced on Jun 7, 2022 includes a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets and seeks to provide clarity in how digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies, are treated under US securities law. The lynchpin of the bill is the codification of the US Supreme Court’s decades-old standard for determining when a…

Use of so-called cryptocurrency “mixers,” which combine various types of assets to mask their origin, peaked at a 30-day average of nearly $52 million worth of digital currency in April, representing an unprecedented volume of funds moving through those services, researchers at cryptocurrency research firm Chainalysis found. A near two-fold increase in funds sent from illicit…

Snap is considering a plan to let its members use the app to showcase non-fungible tokens (NFTs), joining the ranks of other social media companies using digital collectibles to woo influencers to their platforms. Snap is readying a test feature that would let NFT artists showcase their designs on Snapchat as augmented reality (AR) filters, the…

A cryptocurrency wallet service provider serving more than 2 million users worldwide and managing about $3 billion worth of Bitcoin was found to contain API vulnerabilities tied to how external authentication logins were implemented. The bugs are fixed, but the discovery illustrates the high stakes involved in implementing APIs securely, researchers say — and the difficulties…

Celsius Network, the troubled crypto lender, “is deeply insolvent,” alleged the U.S. state of Vermont’s Department of Financial Regulation (DFR), noting the lender lacks the assets and liquidity to honor its obligations to account holders and other creditors. “Celsius deployed customer assets in a variety of risky and illiquid investments, trading, and lending activities,” the…

Regarding cryptocurrency cybercrimes and attacks, North Korea is a notable region with increased activities. Many groups are posing high threats through their attack on some crypto protocols. Also, a report in June disclosed that North Korea has 7 million active hackers. Many stolen funds running into millions of dollars have been traced back to the…

Global cryptocurrency exchange Binance is under the spotlight as a report claims it continued serving Iranian clients despite a company ban and economic sanctions against the country. According to an investigative report from Reuters, individuals inside the country continued to trade on Binance after the company itself had shifted Iran onto a blacklist of jurisdictions in…

If you took the collateral out of decentralized lending, you’d have something not only potentially useful, but scalable into the real economy. So said the Bank for International Settlement (BIS) in June. The problem is, that requires taking the decentralization of decentralized finance (DeFi), because it would require a trusted intermediary to vet lenders. But the whole…

The first known non-fungible token was a short video clip minted on May 3, 2014. Since then, NFTs have grown rapidly from amusing trifles to serious stores of value. In 2021, a work by the artist Beeple sold for a whopping $69.3 million. That was just a portion of the estimated $40 billion valuation of…

Cybercriminals have begun coming up with ways to exploit the unexpected rise in value and importance of cryptocurrencies in their hunt for more profitable schemes. Malware that mines cryptocurrencies has become a popular way to earn money and is a viable alternative to ransomware. Cybercriminals have turned to utilize a variety of tools and strategies aimed…

Uniswap has become the latest victim of a phishing attack, which have become a trademark scheme by crypto hackers in 2022. This time, Uniswap’s V3 liquidity pool (LP) suffered an exploit in which NFT positions worth approximately $8.1 million were illicitly acquired. To trick the pool provider into signing malicious transactions, the hacker group impersonated Uniswap’s…

Decentralized finance (DeFi) has ballooned into a booming industry that demonstrates some of the efficient and creative possibilities of the crypto industry. Tens of billions of dollars in crypto assets today are locked in DeFi, a significant increase from 2021. One reason it continues to grow is the appeal of “yield farming,” a strategy that leverages…

Cryptocurrencies are a volatile investment today, but card companies including Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are betting crypto will one day be used routinely for everyday purchases from food to clothes to plane tickets—and they don’t want to be left behind when that happens. Consumers now can make payments with cryptocurrencies linked to Visa and…

Researchers have disclosed what they say could be an attempt to kick-off a new large-scale cryptocurrency mining campaign targeting the NPM JavaScript package repository.  The malicious activity, attributed to a software supply chain threat actor dubbed CuteBoi, involves an array of 1,283 rogue modules that were published in an automated fashion from over 1,000 different…

Bitcoin (BTC) faces a new selling threat in the near future as users of defunct exchange Mt. Gox prepare to get their BTC back. In fresh correspondence dated July 6, attorney Nobuaki Kobayashi, appointed trustee in the Mt. Gox rehabilitation process, confirmed that he was “preparing to make repayments” to account holders. Over eight years after…

Devin, the founder of a cryptocurrency startup based in San Francisco, woke up one day in February to the most bizarre phone call of his life. The man on the other end, an FBI agent, told Devin that the seemingly legitimate software developer he’d hired the previous summer was a North Korean operative who’d sent tens…

As more people enter the web3 ecosystem, there are increasing opportunities for hackers to attack. And during the second quarter, there was a significant rise in crypto-focused phishing attacks across social media sites, according to a new report. There were 290 recorded attacks during the second quarter, up 170% from 106 in the first quarter, according…

Participants in the fast-moving – but legally uncertain – non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace can maximize their business opportunities and mitigate risk by delineating their specific role early and clearly defining where their obligations begin and where their responsibilities end. Understanding and defining your role, and the role of your counterparties, is critical. Here are some…

Major cryptocurrency broker Voyager Digital Ltd. has filed for bankruptcy protection, becoming the second major company to file during the recent volatility in the crypto market after the collapse of Three Arrows Capital. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late Tuesday, a mere week after it suspended withdrawals, deposits and trading on its platform. At…

The recent crypto market crash has sparked a wave of fear, uncertainty and doubt throughout the industry. The crash, which is now being called a stablecoin crash started with the imploded Terra LUNA which lost over 95% of its value in a matter of hours. These developments sparked a marketwide crash that saw Bitcoin hit…

Crema hacker who exploited Solana’s liquidity protocol on July 2 was allowed to keep $1.6 million in white hat incentives, but he returned most of the money. The 45,455 Solana (SOL) reward is worth around 16.7 percent of Crema’s lost $9.6 million, forcing the protocol to shut down service. The Crema staff began investigating who…

US government officials who privately own cryptocurrencies are now banned from working on regulations and policies that could affect the value of digital assets. A new advisory notice released by the US Office of Government Ethics (OGE) on Tuesday stated that the de minimis exemption — which allows for the owners of securities who hold…

Recent analysis of the DeFi sector carried out by CryptoMonday shows that money laundering in the sector has grown by 263% in the first two quarters of 2022. At press time, DeFi protocols have been conduits of up to 69% of funds associated with illicit activity, a significant upsurge from 19% in 2021. “Bad actors…

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Solana Labs, a for-profit company working on the development of the Solana blockchain, in a California federal court last week accusing the company and people within the ecosystem of making illegal profits and promoting its token, SOL, as an unregistered security. The outcome of the lawsuit could have…

Rarely has a job application backfired more spectacularly than in the case of one senior engineer at Axie Infinity, whose interest in joining what turned out to be a fictitious company led to one of the crypto sector’s biggest hacks. Ronin, the Ethereum-linked sidechain that underpins play-to-earn game Axie Infinity, lost $540 million in crypto to…

The massive growth of NFT creation, collection and sales in the past few years has led to a growth in NFT scams seeking to separate investors from their cash or cryptocurrency. In 2021, the NFT market grew by 21,000%, with $17.6 billion in sales, according to Fortune. NFTs stored in cold wallets — digital wallets…

Security researchers have revealed that a radio control system for drones is vulnerable to remote takeover due to a weakness that lies in the mechanism that connects the transmitter and receiver. According to researchers, the protocol for radio controlled aircraft called ExpressLRS is popular among drone creators. The security vulnerability presents a major issue as…