Earlier this week, Crypto.com was the unfortunate victim of a security breach. On Thursday, the exchange confirmed that about 483 accounts were impacted by the hack, thanks to the perpetrators breaching multiple layers of security.
The “unauthorized withdrawals” made from the affected accounts were noticed last Monday. Among other things, Crypto.com also revealed that the hackers successfully stole a total of 4,836.26 ETH, 443.93 BTC, and around $66,200 in other crypto assets.
The crypto exchange paused any withdrawals from taking place for about 14 hours as soon as it detected suspicious activity. The company emphasized that the users had nothing to worry about because the funds were safe. However, it seems that this isn’t the case now.
Reports of the hack came after PeckShield, a blockchain analytics company, revealed on-chain data to show that the hackers took approximately $15 million worth of ETH from Crypto.com. Not only that, they already washed half of the amount with Tornado Cash. Some Crypto.com users, including renowned ones, took to social media to reveal that some of the Ether in their accounts were gone. Fortunately, the crypto exchange confirmed that it had already compensated all the hack victims.
TheDigitalArtist (CC0), Pixabay
Now, the exchange is adding extra security layers to the platform to prevent this unfortunate event from happening again. Now, a newly-whitelisted withdrawal address will have to wait 24 hours before being able to make its first withdrawal. Not only that, but Crypto.com is also introducing a Worldwide Account Protection Program (WAPP), which provides users fund protection reaching up to $250,000.
According to Crypto.com’s Chief Information Security Officer, Jason Lau:
SundaeSwap, one of the first Cardano-based DEXs (Decentralized Exchanges), is to become operational on January 20The native coin SUNDAE’s ISO (Initial Stake Pool Offering) is also slated for the same date.
A ‘fully-functional’ beta version of the decentralized exchange (DEX) is being deployed since the project requires more time to audit the contracts and conform to industry security standards. Since January, they have been accepting proposals for liquidity pool listing. In the following updates, the platform will incorporate decentralized governance.
Where to Purchase
During the initial phase, users can obtain SUNDAE tokens in three ways. They can take part in the ISO, earn yield farming awards on SundaeSwap, and exchange other SUNDAE tokens on DEXs like SundaeSwap. The ISO is divided into five five-day epochs. 5% of the total token supply will be allocated equally as incentives during the period.
Congratulations to the Sundae Team and ecosystem. It was a long and hard road for them. Also, many more Cardano DApps coming online this quarter to look forward to! https://t.co/54aL66fRMD
Another significant feature of the program is yield farming, available from January to June. As yield farming prizes, 500,000 SUNDAE will be provided daily.
More Cardano projects are being developed
SundaeSwap’s entry indicates that demand for Cardano’s native token ADA will increase in the near future. The announcement triggered a bullish surge in ADA, with the price reaching as high as $1.6.
Cardano’s founder, Charles Hoskinson, believes that 2022 will be a watershed moment for the blockchain. According to him, the first half of the year would be critical for the commercialization and utility of Cardano initiatives. He anticipates a tenfold increase in Cardano projects and users this year.
It appears that fashion houses around the world have an innate connection to NFTs. Gucci has entered the ranks (again) this week, with the introduction of a new collaboration release. Burberry was one of the first designer brands we reported entering the NFT space in August 2021. On the other hand, Gucci received their first taste of NFTs before that narrative.
Gucci has now doubled down, launching Vault, an “experimental online area,” in collaboration with Superplastic. The new NFT series, branded “#SUPERGUCCI,” is the brand’s first collaborative NFT investigation.
However, as previously stated, this is not Gucci’s first rodeo. In June of last year, the designer label produced their first NFT, the ‘Gucci Aria NFT,’ earning a cool $25,000 at Sotheby’s. Unlike typical NFT launches, the new Gucci appears to be a fresh approach, with early information indicating an “online concept store.”
According to the Vault website, the platform is under “constant evolution, exhibiting restored and personalized archive pieces alongside a selection of things from other brands.” Consider it something like a fashion house museum.
Aside from the aforementioned Burberry, fashion and apparel firms have been entering and exploring the market on a regular basis. Gucci’s regular competitors, Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, and Dior, have all participated in blockchain and NFT projects in some form, while other traditional fashion manufacturers, such as Adidas and Gap, have recently made news with crypto engagement as well.
Gap was recently highlighted as a major clothing brand to distribute NFTs, launching a ‘gamified NFT collection’ that features rare, limited edition products for collectors via the Tezos network.
Of course, not all businesses have been sympathetic to the idea of NFTs; Hermes, for example, has been named several times as a brand that has been dissatisfied with a designer who has copied their brand image. As we wrote in the December issue of NFTs In A Nutshell, Hermes is apparently concerned about IP and trademark breaches involving NFT founder Mason Rothschild’s MetaBirkins.
Regardless of their place in the broader market, fashion brands are certainly finding a unique approach to engage with customers. Yet, the long-term viability or engagement levels that NFTs will be able to see with these consumers remain to be seen.
Exchange of cryptocurrency derivatives BitMEX is making significant inroads across Europe. BXM Operations AG, one of its subsidiaries, has purchased a bank in Germany. We’ve reached that point in the adoption process. BitMEX purchased the bank with the “ambitious objective of developing a one-stop-shop for regulated crypto products in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and thereby becoming a strong player in Europe,” according to their announcement news release. Boom!
“Founded by our CEO Alexander Höptner and CFO Stephan Lutz,” the company has already paid and signed the forms.
“BXM Operations AG and Dietrich von Boetticher, the current owner of Bankhaus von der Heydt, have signed a purchase agreement, which will be finalised only with BaFin’s regulatory permission.” The acquisition is scheduled to close in mid-2022.”
The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, or BaFin, is an “autonomous federal entity with headquarters in Bonn and Frankfurt.” According to Wikipedia, it “falls under the authority of the Federal Ministry of Finance.”
What Do BitMEX’s Executives Have to Say About the Transaction?
“Through combining the regulated digital assets knowledge of Bankhaus von der Heydt with the crypto innovation and size of BitMEX, I believe we can establish a regulated crypto goods powerhouse in the heart of Europe,” said the company’s CEO, Alexander Höptner.
And CFO Stephan Lutz goes on to say:
“As Europe’s largest economy, Germany combines an innovative approach to digital assets with robust regulatory control and the rule of law – making it a great target for BitMEX’s European development.”
The purchase is consistent with the company’s overall strategy. They recently launched “BitMEX Link in Europe,” an innovative brokerage service based in Switzerland that promotes digital asset trading. According to their website, it is a “platform that enables traders to utilize the opportunities of 24/7 crypto markets.” As the world moves away from analog banking systems, we make the future available to all.”
Previous Run-ins With The Law
Trauma is at the root of BitMEX’s fixation with regulation and compliance. The CFTC charged the company in October 2020 for accepting US clients without establishing anti-money laundering and Know Your Customer protocols. As a result, According to Bitcoinist:
“According to an additional agreement accepted by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, BitMEX will be required to pay a civil monetary penalty of $100 million” (FinCEN). The court’s judgement prohibits the crypto platform from “future violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and the CFTC’s regulations.”
Since then, BitMEX has worked hard to maintain its impeccable reputation.
How Much Do We Know About Bankhaus Von Der Heydt?
The bank has been in operation for 268 years. They reminisce about the past on their website:
“Since our inception in 1754, we have had an interesting history.” We conducted one of the first securities issuance in Germany in 1835. The foundation for the expansion of the Prussian railway network was created with the help of this issue.
Today, we are one of the first banks to employ blockchain technology to make financial history.”
The bank already provides a number of services that are based on “blockchain technology.” That piqued interest in the matter could have been what drew BitMEX in the first place. In any case, before we celebrate the historic acquisition, let’s wait for BaFin’s clearance.
Milo, a fintech startup based in Miami, is introducing the world’s first “crypto mortgage,” or so it claims. With this digital bank, crypto investors living in the US can use their digital assets as leverage to buy housing or real estate. At this time, only Bitcoin holders who are willing to leverage their BTC as collateral can qualify for the startup’s innovative 30-year mortgage loan.
According to Milo’s announcement:
At this time, Milo is already beginning to approve some loans, thanks to its ongoing early-access stage. The company expects that the service will be open to most applicants on the waiting list within the next few months. However, Milo didn’t mention any specifics regarding how much BTC applicants will need to guarantee a loan. It also remains unclear what level of over-collateralization is needed to counterbalance the volatility of the digital asset.
Milo CEO and founder Josip Rupena shared that the idea for this crypto-mortgage service came after reading so many stories of people withdrawing their BTC to buy property, only to find that the coin’s value increased later on.
mohamed_hassan (CC0), Pixabay
Milo has other mortgage solutions for foreign nationals. According to the company, this service has already had loans worth millions of dollars, not to mention that it has seen applicants from more than 63 countries.
Customers who aren’t based in the United States can close their housing loans online through this mortgage solution. In other words, they don’t need to go to the US embassy or travel to the country. According to Miami’s pro-crypto mayor, Francis Suarez, Milo’s crypto mortgage system is a “groundbreaking achievement.” And he believes that services like it are advancing the dominance of the United States in the ecosystem.
That said, Milo isn’t the first company to consider incorporating crypto in real estate. United Wholesale Mortgage began to dip its toes into crypto mortgage repayments with ETH and BTC back in August 2021. However, the company decided not to push through with its ideas due to regulatory uncertainty.
CoinsPaid, one of the world’s top crypto payment companies, had a record year in 2021, with processed volume jumping by 340 percent, over 1 million transactions per month, and a historic CPD token launch. In 2022, the corporation plans to capitalize on its success by expanding into Latin America and launching a large-scale token marketing campaign.
Payment volume has increased by 340 percent
CoinsPaid is one of the largest crypto payment ecosystems, with a gateway, business, and personal crypto wallets, an OTC desk, currency conversion tools, a SaaS solution, and even one of the first recurring crypto payment solutions. In the EU, the company is licensed and regulated, and it assists over 800 online businesses in accepting cryptocurrencies.
CoinsPaid processed 5.5 billion euros in crypto payments in 2021, a 340 percent increase from 2020. The company’s transaction volume increased by 170 percent, surpassing 1 million per month for the first time. These figures indicate the growing popularity of cryptocurrency as a payment mechanism and CoinsPaid’s popularity. Indeed, the service is well-known for its low, transparent fees, simple integration, and extensive industry knowledge.
In the meantime, CoinsPaid’s crew expanded by 140 percent to 125 members, and several of the products were updated. A new B2C wallet for iOS and Android was released, and a one-of-a-kind recurring crypto payment solution was dubbed Plug and Pay.
CoinsPaid is poised to expand into new markets with these dependable processing options. The service has already established a company entity in El Salvador (one of the world’s most crypto-friendly jurisdictions) and plans to expand across Latin America in the coming months.
CPD token: finally connecting traditional and DeFi enterprises
The total value locked (TVL) of the DeFi sector will have increased from $25 billion to more than $100 billion by 2021. As the rates on traditional financial products continue to fall, customers are turning to crypto staking, liquidity mining, and lending to earn yields of up to 50%. However, businesses are largely excluded from the DeFi world: some are concerned about legality, while others don’t know where to begin.
CoinsPaid is ideally positioned to bridge this gap as a crypto payment provider supporting over 800 retailers. Its developing payment ecosystem comprises a number of DeFi tools geared towards businesses and is centered around CPD, a utility and loyalty token.
Merchants who stake CPD in their CoinsPaid dashboard receive up to 50% off processing and currency fees. The discount is enhanced when a merchant also utilizes CPD tokens to pay the fees.
Staking is a basic solution that is great for getting organizations started with DeFi. The next step will be a multifunctional DeFi dashboard, which will provide merchants access to somewhat more complex but highly appealing financial products. Clients of CoinsPaid will be able to add CPD as a payment option to their website, in addition to the other 30+ cryptocurrencies offered by the gateway.
CPD was released in September 2021, with an industry-first IDO that ran on three blockchains concurrently. The DAO Pad seed sale was 25x oversubscribed, and the TGE (token generation event) DEX liquidity was the greatest of any IDO project ($1.6 million). There are over 1,300 CPD holders as of January 2021.
CoinsPaid has introduced two yield farming programs on Ethereum for liquidity providers who support CPD, in addition to staking for merchants. In the first quarter of 2022, a new farming instrument on BSC is planned.
The year 2022 will be remembered as the year of CPD token acceptance
CoinsPaid is ready to move to the next stage after a successful token launch: token marketing. CoinsPaid, as a fully regulated provider, is required to get legal opinions in the EU before launching a token marketing campaign.
As of January 2022, the company had secured a legal opinion from the well-known Liechtenstein-based BCAS firm, which has worked with key players such as Waves, Bitrix Global, and BitPay. A second legal opinion from a German firm should be released soon, after which CPD marketing can begin safely.
The proposed campaign will include articles in key crypto media, advertising on Dextool, BSCscan, and Coinmarketcap, airdrops and viral contests, bounty campaigns, and more. CoinsPaid will also provide new partner and ambassador programs, as well as a cryptocurrency academy.
The campaign will reach a wide range of regions, including Latin America, Turkey, Vietnam, the CIS, and Spain. The goal is to expand the number of CPD holders and reach 150-200k subscribers by the end of the year.
The CPD token will also be available on a number of well-known cryptocurrency exchanges. Negotiations are currently underway with platforms such as ByBit, Gate.io, Bittrex, and many others.
It seems that residents of Svaneti, Georgia, were urged to pledge that they won’t mine cryptocurrency to try and fix the energy shortages they’ve been having due to BTC mining. If you’re familiar with Svaneti’s economy, then you may know that its economy highly relies on tourism spending. According to Macrotrends, the region’s tourism spending rose yearly from 2000 to 2019.
Unfortunately, the region’s tourism nosedived in 2020 due to the global pandemic, and it has only recently started to recover, slowly returning to pre-Covid levels in terms of growth. To try and adjust to the tragic circumstances, hundreds of Georgian residents flocked to crypto mining, which is reportedly the cause of the severe electrical disturbances the region has been experiencing recently.
Local media outlet Sputnik Georgia showcases a video from December 30, 2021, wherein crypto miners crowd a church to make a holy oath to St. George that they will never mine crypto again. Holy oaths like that are seen as unbreakable.
These days, the topic of crypto mining has become a pretty controversial one. Residents have even begun to stage protests in Mestia, while the local electric company, Energo Pro, threatens to increase the surcharges on the electricity.
Because Svaneti is such a mountainous region that benefits from free electricity in some areas, that’s why crypto mining is such an appealing activity. Georgia isn’t the only place to experience this issue, though. It appears that this has become all too common in many regions around the world.
Many Bitcoin miners moved to countries with affordable energy, much to the mortification of residents. The governments of Kosovo and Kazakhstan even decided to ban crypto mining for preservation.
Before 2021 came to a close, the municipality of Mestia released a statement explaining how far crypto mining has come in disrupting their local energy supply. The statement noted that the region’s energy consumption rose by 237% in 2021 alone.
Even Energo Pro said that this massive consumption increase is not sustainable. On January 5, the energy company revealed to local media that the region was already consuming as much as 27 megawatts. This figure is almost four times the amount of power they’re able to handle.
In a surprising turn of events, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) decided to shut down crypto ATMs within the city-state. According to a report by Bloomberg, crypto ATM operators in Singapore had no choice but to close down their operations to comply with the new regulations.
Unsurprisingly, this decision sparked reactions from the crypto operators in the city, including Daenerys & Co., who said that they were caught by surprise by the news. Deodi, its main competitor, has already turned off its ATM network in light of the new regulations. Not only that, but they’ve also tasked their staff to take away their crypto ATMs within the city.
This new move is because the Singaporean watchdog is working hard to regulate crypto-related advertising. The central bank released new guidance last Monday, stating that crypto firms can no longer promote their services in public areas, websites, and social networks.
However, the fact that Singapore no longer approves of crypto came as a surprise. In December, fintech startup Coincub described Singapore as the most crypto-friendly country globally, thanks to its “good legislative environment” and “high rate of cryptocurrency adoption.” However, the legislative climate seems to be souring now.
Singapore’s recent decision to clamp down on crypto advertising came after Spain and the U.K. implemented similar advertising limitations. The Spanish government’s new regulations require crypto-related companies and even influencers to submit their ads for regulatory approval about ten days beforehand. Meanwhile, the U.K. is now cracking down on misleading crypto ads.
In a recent announcement, Opera revealed that it would be officially rolling out the beta version of its crypto browser. The company wants to introduce more users to different innovative platforms within the cryptocurrency world, and it plans on doing so through its crypto browser. Users of the new browser can access platforms similar to dApps, the Metaverse, and others. Opera also confirmed in its announcement that the browser would support Windows, Android, and even Mac devices.
Opera for Crypto Adoption
According to the official statement, the new Opera crypto browser comes with a VPN that won’t require you to log in. Not only that, but the browser will also come with a built-in ad blocker, offering users maximum possible security. You might be thinking, “but these features are already available on the regular Opera browser!”
While that’s true, this new one will also give you direct access to NFT platforms, decentralized exchanges, and dApps that offer gaming access. In a statement by Jorgen Arnesen, Opera’s Executive Vice President, he says that they created this initiative to help push crypto adoption.
It Comes With a Built-in Wallet
Based on the latest announcement, it appears that the upcoming app will offer users a much better and more convenient way to access various Web3 content. Opera also said that the crypto browser could help simplify onboarding, making the process extra easy for the users. Finally, the company acknowledges that more and more people need to familiarize Web3 if the decentralized finance sector wants to experience success.
As mentioned, the browser will have a built-in wallet, and users will be responsible for their private keys. The wallet is currently receiving support from Ethereum, but the company plans on sealing more partnerships in the future. MATIC recently settled a deal with Opera, which could mean that they’ll be the next integrated platform.
Crypto.com reported during its recent security breach that it lost about $15 million. However, an on-chain analyst claims that it may have been much more than that. The on-chain analyst in question, Pseudonymous ErgoBTC, who works at Bitcoin’s research firm OXT Research, says that the worth of losses may be up to $33 million.
Last Monday, reports stated that Crypto.com temporarily paused all withdrawals after some of its users noticed dubious transactions on their accounts. Since then, the crypto exchange has resumed withdrawals, assuring users that their funds were unharmed. However, the platform later reports that about 4.6K ETH ($15 million) was stolen and that hackers laundered the funds via Tornado Cash.
On Tuesday, ErgoBTC tweeted, implying that Crypto.com’s payout wallet lost another 444 BTC ($18.5 million). The on-chain analyst explained that OXT Research detected a questionable transaction worth 52.55 BTC ($2.18 million) from the crypto exchange’s custodial wallet.
We noted this abnormally large withdrawal from @cryptocom's payout wallet bc1q7cyrfmck2ffu2ud3rn5l5a8yv6f0chkp0zpemf via https://t.co/D9yITrsei4
Shortly after, several hundred withdrawals are consolidated into 4 outputs for 67.75 BTC.
After that transaction, “several hundred withdrawals” were created and then merged into four different outputs, each worth 67.75 BTC ($2.81 million). The four batches amounted to 271 BTC ($11.25 million) overall, and the hacker laundered all of them through Bitcoin tumbler, a service that permits users to merge multiple transactions into one. As a result, investigators will have a challenging time tracing BTC transfers.
According to ErgoBTC, this Bitcoin tumbler service is allegedly used by Lazarus, a North Korean cybercrime syndicate. ErgoBTC also mentions that the same perpetrators behind Crypto.com’s security breach are also in control of another address, which holds about 172.9 BTC ($7.25 million).
According to data from Blockchair, it appears that the address received the funds around the same time the perpetrators made the other transactions linked to the Crypto.com hack. However, it seems that the hacker still hasn’t moved those funds through a bitcoin tumbling service for now.
