The Crypto Currier 9th August 2022

This week's biggest news in crypto and blockchain in the Crypto Currier:

US Treasury sanctions Tornado Cash for its role in money laundering and cracks down on other crypto mixers. Coinbase is hit with two fresh law suits as its users are hit with a fresh scam trying to part them from their crypto. Crypto fundraising in the first half of 2022 has outpaced all of 2021, hitting $30.3 billion so far, but already this year an estimated $2 billion has been stolen in hacks on crypto bridges alone with a fresh $190 million hack this week.?

Blockchain recycling firm SMX sees valuation skyrocket 14 fold in SPAC listing

The?Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation?is leading a consortium of 18 companies in a blockchain-based pilot project to trial biofuels for marine fuel. The maritime sector currently makes up 2.9% of global carbon emissions, which it is hoped will be reduced. This solution uses synthetic DNA tracing together with blockchain to track marine fuels. “Blockchain and DNA-powered fuel tracing and tracking is a far more accurate and transparent means of monitoring fuel than we have seen before, and sets the bar for future fuel tracing and tracking,” said Deanna MacDonald, Co-founder & CEO of blockchain and traceability startup BunkerTrace which will run the tracking. (Ledger Insights)?Read More

US Treasury bans Tornado Cash mixer for role in crypto money laundering

The US Department of the Treasury has added crypto mixer Tornado Cash to a list of sanctioned organizations for its role in laundering crypto stolen in major hacks, especially those linked to North Korean hacking groups. This means all US citizens will be banned from interacting with the mixer and will require that US assets belonging to Tornado Cash be reported to the Office of Foreign Assets Control.?Brian E. Nelson, under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Tornado Cash 'had not taken adequate steps to prevent its services from being used by some of the most prolific cybercriminals'. He said of crypto mixers in general that “Treasury will continue to aggressively pursue actions against mixers that launder virtual currency for criminals and those who assist them”. (The Verge)?Read More

Coinbase hit with 2 fresh lawsuits amid SEC probe

Coinbase has been hit with two additional legal claims from two law firms. New York-based Bragar Eagel & Squire?revealed ?that it would be suing crypto exchange Coinbase for making deceptive claims about its business practices. Pomerantz LLP has also?filed ?a claim alleging that it is entitled to compensation for any losses incurred as a result of violations of federal securities laws. Both claim that ‘Coinbase made fraudulent and deceptive representations regarding the company's business, operations, and compliance efforts between Apr. 14, 2021 and July 26 2022.’?(Cointelegraph)?Read More

A nasty new wallet-draining scam is doing the rounds of Coinbase users

A new scam is targeting Coinbase customers with attackers posing as the exchange to trick people into handing over their account credentials. A fake email warns users?that their account needs attention due to an “urgent matter” asking users to either confirm a transaction, or provide additional information to prevent their account from being locked. A link leads to a fake site which looks almost identical to the real Coinbase website. Victims are then redirected to a site that says “account suspended” and offers them a chance to talk to “customer support” which is nothing but a continuation of the scam. (TechRadar)?Read More

Crypto fundraising hits $30.3B in H1, outpacing all of 2021: Report

The crypto sector has already?raised $30.3 billion in funds so far this year, outpacing all fundraising in 2021, a new report by crypto analytics firm Messari and Dove Analytics shows.?The $30.3 billion was raised across centralized finance (CeFi), decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and infrastructure through 1199 funding rounds in the first half of 2022. Of this amount, DeFi got $1.8 billion compared to $10.2 billion in CeFi. (Cointelegraph)?Read More

Portuguese Banks Are Closing Crypto Exchange Accounts

At least three crypto exchanges in Portugal have had their bank accounts shut down despite regulatory approval to operate in the country. This is thought to be due to banks’ fears of money laundering, with banks wanting to avoid the potential for criminal activity that goes with those accounts. Banks in Portugal are legally able to shut down accounts with cryptocurrency exchanges without any input from the regulator. (Coindesk)?Read More

One South Korean VC firm lost $3.6 billion dollars from the Luna stablecoin crash

A South Korean VC firm lost $3.6 billion dollars from the Luna stablecoin crash. This is thought to be one of the largest losses from the fallout of the stablecoin. The VC firm Hashed said it purchased 30 million Luna tokens in the early days of Luna. Hashed has raised $240 billion to commit back into the space since December, with plans to raise another fund after the first is deployed. (Business Insider)?Read More

Chainalysis Estimates $2B Stolen From Cross-Chain Bridge Hacks This Year

Blockchain analytics company Chainalysis estimates that $2 billion worth of crypto has been stolen from cross-chain bridges this year, including this week's $190 million Nomad bridge exploit. A report they released on the security vulnerabilities of cross-chain bridges estimates that this type of hack accounts for 69% of all stolen crypto funds this year. "Bridges are an attractive target because they often feature a central storage point of funds that back the 'bridged' assets on the receiving blockchain," the report said. (Coindesk)?Read More

Hackers Steal $190 million from crypto bridge in 'frenzied free-for-all'

Nomad, a crypto bridge which allows users to transfer cryptocurrencies between different blockchains is the latest to suffer an exploit. Hackers have reportedly stolen roughly $190 million in user investments, in the latest in a string of hacks on crypto bridges. Sam Sun, a researcher at crypto investment firm Paradigm,?tweeted ?that the hackers needed very little technical knowledge to carry out the hack which he described as a ‘frenzied free-for-all’. He said the hackers simply exploited a coding mistake in a routine software upgrade which allowed the hackers to forge transaction data with a simple copy-paste command. "All you had to do was find a transaction that worked, find/replace the other person's address with yours, and then re-broadcast it’’ he tweeted. Nomad has yet to confirm if it’s users will be reimbursed. (Futurism)?Read More

Hackers From North Korea Seen As Culprits In DeBridge Finance Cyberattack

Hackers from North Korea are reportedly behind a hack of cross-chain interoperability and liquidity transfer protocol DeBridge Finance, according to multiple sources. Reports indicate the cyberattack likely originated from the North Korean hacking syndicate,?Lazarus Group.?A significant number of DeBridge team members received a faked email containing a PDF file titled “New Salary Adjustments” that was?made out to be sent?by?DeBridge co-founder Alex Smirnov. (Bitcoinist)?Read More

Consumer perceptions of NFTs sink

A July survey by?Variety magazine?found that consumer perceptions of NFTs has declined, particularly amongst those that have not bought one. Most people who don't (yet) own an NFT or non-fungible token believe them to be a bad investment, with 15% believing they are a good investment. The rest had a neutral outlook. Of those who own an NFT, two thirds however believe they are a good investment and only 5% believe them to be a poor one. The 15-29 year old demographic sees the most NFT penetration with a quarter owning an NFT. (Ledger Insights)?Read More

Instagram makes NFTs sharable in 100 countries on its platform

Instagram has now made NFTs shareable?in over 100 countries. This follows the platform enabling NFTs on posts and stories in May. The rollout now includes NFTs on Flow, up from Ethereum and Polygon. (Ledger Insights)?Read More