Author: Lauren Claxton

Lauren is currently a freelance writer with experience in finance writing. She has a growing interest in the metaverse and all things NFTs and expects to graduate in 2022 with bachelors degrees in creative writing and public relations.

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Crypto News Metaverse NFTs

Pudgy Penguin NFTs Pump After Announcing Physical Toys

Pudgy Penguins, one of the cutest of NFT collections, has announced on Twitter that it will be turning select penguins into physical collectibles to be known as Pudgy Toys:

Following the announcement, the collection registered a sales spike of 370 percent, representing a threefold increase over the previous day.

Pudgy Penguin Plushies?

Described by the PP creators as “the first of many instances where the Pudgy Penguins IP will allow Web2 to meet Web3”, this latest news seems to have renewed community interest.

According to OpenSea, the collection saw a transaction volume of 256 ETH post-announcement. Pudgy Penguins’ floor price rose to 2.73 ETH, up 18 percent on the previous day. Though the exact form these collectibles will take has yet to be revealed, it has been stated that the new line of Pudgy Toys will be directly licensed from the community:

This update coincides with the ongoing debate regarding licensing rights for NFT holders. It’s an issue recently highlighted by the Moonbirds collection, whose floor price tanked following the switch to a CC0 (creative commons) licence.

Netz Spreads the Pudgy Love

In April, the Pudgy Penguins NFT collection sold for a whopping 750 ETH (US$2.6 million), separating the 8,888 penguins from their allegedly controversial roots. Luca Netz, the LA-based entrepreneur of Netz Capital, now leads the project and intends to use it to “spread love across the meta”.

Netz’s complete project ownership means Pudgy Penguins now has its own token, $PENGU.

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Australia Crypto News Investing Regulation

ASIC Chair ‘Troubled’ by Extent of Risk Taken in Crypto Investing

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has admitted it holds concerns over the crypto investment increase seen during the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly among new, inexperienced investors.

According to ASIC’s new investment behaviour research, conducted among more than 1000 investors in November 2021, crypto was the second most common investment product last year.

Almost Half of Investors Own Crypto

ASIC chairman Joe Longo pointed to the increasing number of new investors buying cryptocurrency without fully understanding the associated risks.

Of those surveyed, 44 percent of investors stated they owned crypto, and of these, 25 percent claimed crypto was their only investment:

https://www.finsia.com/news-hub/the-standard/joe-longo-will-make-access-affordable-financial-advice-one-his-priorities

According to the survey, only 20 percent of cryptocurrency owners considered their investment approach to be ‘risk-taking’, raising concerns that investors did not understand the risks of this asset class.

Joe Longo, ASIC chairman

Perhaps even more concerningly, 41 percent of investors surveyed stated they had received their investing information from social media platforms – predominantly Reddit, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.

Longo finds these figures troubling and believes consumers are failing to weigh the risks and fully understand what they are participating in. Andrew Bragg, a NSW Liberal Senator and vocal proponent of the crypto industry, agrees with Longo and recommends “sweeping reforms to regulate crypto”.

ASIC Pleads for Smart Investing

April 2022 was a notable month for ASIC warnings regarding cryptocurrency and other financial matters. Firstly, the regulator released a guidance note for Aussie ‘finfluencers’. The document outlined which financial influencers could be in breach of the law, and recommended these people check they had the right qualifications to be providing financial advice. The move was met with contention by many ‘finfluencers’ at the time.

Only days later, ASIC’s former chairman Greg Medcraft called for urgent Australian crypto regulatory clarity. Medcraft, joined by venture capitalist Mark Carnegie, requested that Aussie regulators join the crypto start-up race. According to the Australian Financial Review, Medcraft hoped to develop a plan to encourage digital asset tech and investment.

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Crypto News Ethereum Optimism

Optimism TVL Rockets 300% Amid Imminent ETH Merge

New data from DefiLlama reveals that Optimism’s total value locked (TVL) has surged by almost 300 percent in the past month.

The Ethereum scaling solution surpassed US$1 billion in TVL ahead of the blockchain’s transition from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake network:

https://defillama.com/chain/Optimism
DefiLlama data for Optimism’s TVL.

ETH Merge Optimal for Optimism

Optimism (OP) rose by more than 89 percent in the past week alone, reaching a high of US$2.22 on August 4 and noticeably outperforming most of the market.

The latest price action is likely based on developments surrounding the upcoming Ethereum layer-2 scaling protocol. The protocol will utilise rollups to speed up Ethereum’s transactions, thereby reducing its costs. This week’s value spike has followed an OP Labs announcement that flagged plans for a Bedrock upgrade set to arrive as early as Q4 2022:

Experts believe the Merge upgrade could potentially scale the network to 100,000 transactions per second, with layer-2 solutions further enhancing such capacity. This would represent a massive upgrade from its current 30 transactions per second.

Other developments users can expect to see soon include a 20 percent cut in the cost of data submission to layer 1, support for several alternative proof systems, and an optimised code that will allow nodes to synch 50 times faster.

Two Sides to the Optimism Coin

Optimism has been busy this year on fronts good and bad. In April the company announced its new governance structure and began preparing for the release of its new token, $OP, to help power the changes. The new structure would see governance divided between two houses – the Citizens house and the Token house, to be established via the airdropping of new tokens to users.

However, June brought damages to Optimism in the form of an exploit. The roll-up solution lost US$15 million worth of its new OP tokens after Wintermute, its launch partner, transferred the tokens to the wrong wallet address. Luckily, a white hat attacker returned 17 million tokens (worth approximately US$11 million).

Categories
Crypto News DeFi Hackers

DeFi Protocol Curve ‘Finance’ Exploited in DNS Spoofing Attack

Curve Finance’s front end this week became the victim of an exploit that ended with a loss of more than US$573,000. Curve took to Twitter to warn its users of the issue with its site, though luckily the spoofing exploit did not affect the Curve exchange:

Exploiting the Curve

On August 9, Twitter user @samczsun alerted the public to the exploit with a tweet that read: “@CurveFinance frontend is compromised, do not use it until further notice!” Despite the Curve team’s quick response to the issue, they were unable to prevent the loss.

The hacker(s) responsible seemingly changed the protocol’s domain name system (DNS), which then allowed them to approve a malicious contract by directing users to a fake clone. In a stroke of luck for Curve, the program’s exchange remained uncompromised, as it utilises a separate DNS provider.

An hour after the initial warning of the exploit, Curve tweeted:

While a significant sum was lost, the quick circulation of information on Twitter regarding the attack on the nameserver and front end may have prevented greater losses.

The Curve decentralised finance (DeFi) protocol is an integral part of the DeFi ecosystem, and exploits such as this prevent other protocols from accessing income sources.

Protocol Exploits Elsewhere

DeFi protocol exploits have proliferated in 2022, with two notable examples occurring in May and June. The first victim was the Fortress protocol, with the crypto borrowing and lending platform losing approximately US$3 million in stolen funds. The Binance Smart Chain (BSC)-based platform had suffered an oracle attack only days prior.

More recently, Terra-based DeFi app Mirror Protocol was the subject of a US$2 million exploit related to Terra blockchain’s recent rebrand to Terra Classic. The exploit almost completely drained the mBTC, mGLXY, mETH, and mDOT pools. Luckily the developers were able to patch the damage before all pools could be drained.

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Australia Bitcoin Mining Crypto News

Australian Green Bitcoin Miner ‘Iris Energy’ Doubles its Hash Rate

Australian green Bitcoin miner Iris Energy has successfully doubled its hash rate on completion of phase two of its Mackenzie site and expects to add further capacity to its Prince George site, also in Canada, by the end of September:

Way Ahead of Schedule

More than a month ahead of schedule, Iris Energy switched on 41 megawatts of Bitcoin mining machines in British Columbia on August 5. The move has lifted the Bitcoin network’s exahashes/second (EH/s) rate to 2.3 EH/s.

https://irisenergy.co/leadership-team/

We are particularly pleased to continue our track record of delivering projects on schedule, despite the current market backdrop and ongoing international supply chain challenges.

Daniel Roberts, co-founder and co-CEO, Iris Energy

Iris Energy has a second site in British Columbia, Prince George, to which it intends to add another 1.4 EH/s (needing 50 MW of energy capacity). As a result of the prompt hash rate increase, the company’s Nasdaq-listed shares were up by more than 10 percent on August 8.

Previous Positives

In March 2021, Iris Energy smashed its pre-IPO funding target of A$20 million. Thanks to an unexpected Platinum Asset Management (PAM) financial commitment, the target was doubled to A$40 million. PAM had pledged $13 million in capital ahead of the planned IPO.

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Algorand Blockchain Crypto News Monash University

Monash Uni Wins Algorand Boost to Drive Green Blockchain Innovation

Melbourne’s Monash University has been named one of 10 global winners of the Algorand Centres of Excellence (ACE) Program. The prize is a shared US$50 million funding boost to drive eco-friendly blockchain technology, education and innovation.

Two Key Apps in Development

Monash’s Blockchain Technology Centre will partner with the Singapore-based Algorand Foundation to jointly develop two applications: a blockchain-as-a-service app for academic credentialing, as well as a prototype for blockchain as a pharmaceutical supply chain provider.

Joseph Liu, associate professor and director of the Monash Blockchain Technology Centre, has expanded on the future functions of these apps. The academic credentialing app aims to develop and explore a blockchain-enabled trusted credential issuance and verification system, while the second project will navigate the possibilities of leveraging blockchain technology to provide a robust, transparent, and accountable pharmaceutical supply chain.

https://users.monash.edu.au/~kailiu/

Though associated primarily with cryptocurrency, blockchain technologies can actually be used in diverse sectors such as strengthening renewable energy optimisation, providing a fair platform for carbon trading, creating robust supply chains for food and agriculture, securing financial technologies, and ensuring cultural sustainability for heritage art and music.

Joseph Liu, associate professor and director, Monash Blockchain Technology Centre

The Algorand Foundation seeks to develop a global blockchain ecosystem, and its Grant and Development Award funding mechanisms have supported other education and research projects in academia. Monash is only one branch of Algorand’s endeavours; not only will it connect Australia with Pacific communities through consultation and training workshops, competitions and community meetups, it will also provide support, opportunities and resources to ensure long-term community sustainability beyond the lifetime of the ACE Program.

Algorand and Blockchain Emissions

This isn’t Algorand’s first notable partnership. In May 2022, $ALGO, the company’s native currency, spiked after the announcement of an International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) sponsorship and technical partnership deal. As FIFA’s official blockchain platform, Algorand will provide a blockchain-supported wallet, develop FIFA’s NFTs, and help implement further blockchain tech. On the day following the announcement, $ALGO jumped from US$0.58 to $0.73, a 25 percent gain.

Last month saw the National Australia Bank (NAB) announce its participation in a new project alongside several overseas banks to use blockchain technology to offset carbon emissions. The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the UK’s bank and insurance company NatWest, and Brazil’s Itaú Unibanco will join NAB to launch Project Carbon – a voluntary pilot that will enter the carbon marketplace.

Categories
Crypto News Hackers

‘Ethical’ Hacker Returns $9 Million of the $190 Million Nomad Exploit

After cryptocurrency bridge Nomad was exploited by hackers to the tune of US$190 million earlier this week, those responsible have sent back US$9 million.

Since then, a recovery wallet has been set up for the safe return of any other funds they may wish to reimburse:

An Attack of Ethics, or Hackers’ Remorse?

Blockchain security and data analytics company PeckShield detected the initial return of stolen funds to Nomad, primarily in the form of USDC alongside USDT and other altcoins.

Then, on August 3, Nomad posted a tweet requesting the return of the remainder of the funds:

Nomad is a protocol that allows users to transfer tokens from Ethereum to other chains. The August 1 exploit appeared to be the outcome of a flaw in its smart contract. This means a multitude of users, with no technical knowledge, were able to find a transaction that worked, modify the target address with their own, and rebroadcast it.

Some of the users who raked in the stolen funds were, in fact, trying to assist the project by preventing the crypto from falling into the wrong hands. Nomad is appealing to these “ethical researchers” and “white hat hackers”, and has provided a crypto custodian (Anchorage Digital) to handle and safeguard the returned assets.

The Kindness of (Some) Hackers

In February this year, one white hat hacker chose a mere US$2 million bug bounty over the option of “printing unlimited ETH”. The hacker reportedly decided to warn the Optimism team of an issue rather than take the opportunity to print the ETH.

In June, another vigilante hacker was paid US$6 million for preventing a US$330 million hack. Two months earlier, the bug had been reported to Aurora via ImmuneFi, a leading Web3 bug bounty platform. All that is known about this hacker is their Ethereum domain name: pwning.eth.

Categories
Crypto News Cryptocurrency Law Regulation Security

Tough Week for Robinhood: 25% of Staff Cut and a $30 Million Fine for Money Laundering Violations

California-based crypto trading platform Robinhood has been fined US$30 million by a New York regulator for failing in its anti-money-laundering obligations.

To make matters worse, the company has also been forced to lay off 25 percent of its staff after performance failed to match expectations.

Additional Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection Violations

The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has issued details of the penalties. Additional to its anti-money-laundering failure, Robinhood is to be penalised for cybersecurity and consumer protection violations.

The platform’s cybersecurity program was found to lack sufficient resources to address risk. Its crypto division had also failed to transition from a manual transaction monitoring system to one more adequate for its user size and transaction volume, in a timely manner.

NYDFS Superintendent Adrienne Harris has spoken publicly about Robinhood’s shortcomings:

As its business grew, Robinhood Crypto failed to invest the proper resources and attention to develop and maintain a culture of compliance – a failure that resulted in significant violations of the department’s anti-money laundering and cybersecurity regulations.

Adrienne Harris, NYDFS Superintendent

Unfortunately for Robinhood, the bad news does not stop there. On August 2, the company released a message from Vlad Tenev, its CEO and co-founder, announcing that the company would be forced to cut almost a quarter of its staff.

Ironically, considering Robinhood’s cybersecurity program was found to be inadequately staffed, overhiring in 2021 in anticipation of growing retail engagement with stock and crypto markets was blamed for the layoffs. Performance failed to match expectations, and Robinhood is bracing for approximately US$30-40 million in cash restructuring charges from employee benefits costs and severance.

One Ordinary Year Follows Another

Last year saw Robinhood also make the news multiple times for all the wrong reasons. In July, the crypto trading app was fined US$70 million for misleading its customers.

Then in October, Robinhood experienced a 78 percent decline in its Q3 crypto revenue. User growth in investment apps had skyrocketed as retail investors piled into stocks and crypto in the wake of the March 2020 Covid-19 financial meltdown. As a result, memecoins were receiving a lot of attention and Robinhood’s exposure to DOGE was blamed for the drop.

Categories
Crypto News NFTs

Fans Spent $2.7 Billion Minting NFTs in 2022 So Far: Report

NFT market activity remains strong according to a Nansen report which has found that US$2.7 billion was spent on NFT minting in the first half of 2022 alone. This figure is the product of activity from more than 1 million unique wallet addresses:

Shift in Users’ Priorities

Industry-leading blockchain data and analytics platform Nansen found that most of these transactions occurred through OpenSea. Its report highlights a shift in crypto users’ priorities yet again, with NFT creators now choosing to retain and reinvest funds into the ecosystem, indicating they have become more mature and conscientious.

This latest report was built off the back of the past report, utilising similar parameters: projects that had primary sales revenue exceeding 20 ETH between January 1 and June 30, 2022:

A total of 28,986 NFT collections were minted and sold on Ethereum during the first six months of 2022. Of these, Pixelmon-Generation 1, Genesis Box, World of Women Galaxy, Moonbirds and VeeFriends Series 2 accounted for 8.4 percent of overall minting.

To the best of Nansen’s knowledge, half (50.7 percent) of the funds raised by these creators stayed with NFT projects, while 45.7 percent circulated to non-entity wallets. It should be noted that Nansen does not have the capacity to track transactions to other counterparties.

Overall, in comparison to the previous report’s results, improvements in the utilisation and productivity of the NFT minting sector are clearly visible.

Nansen research analyst Louisa Chloe wrapped up the data:

https://www.nansen.ai/authors/louisa-choe

Reflecting on the on-chain results of this study, we maintain our conclusion that the minting sector of the NFT market remains healthy with the rise in average mints per unique wallet address … on-chain evidence of NFT collections reinvesting primary sales revenue into NFT demonstrates that builders and creators within this marketplace are looking at the long-term impact of their projects and making decisions that will support that growth.

Louisa Choe, Nansen

Recent NFT Developments

Last month saw two exciting new announcements for the NFT sector within just two days. Firstly, OpenSea expressed its excitement about a “multi-chain future”, thanks to the introduction of the Solana launchpad. The platform will reportedly guide users through the process of pre-mint activity, and will permit list minting and post-mint and secondary sales. This means creators will be able to mint new projects from scratch with ease.

Meanwhile, Australia has its first NFT gallery. Situated at Baringa, near Caloundra on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, the gallery aims to create a hub for digital artists and tech enthusiasts within the popular holiday region.

Categories
Crypto News CryptoPunks NFTs

Jewellery Brand ‘Tiffany and Co’ Releases Limited Edition CryptoPunk Pendants

NFTiff – the newest collaboration transforming CryptoPunks into jewellery – marks high-end brand Tiffany and Co’s latest partnership, with the new project renewing interest in CryptoPunks and driving a 248 percent spike in sales volume:

CryptoPunk Owners Can Buy Up to Three Diamond Necklaces at $50k Apiece

The partnership will enable CryptoPunk owners to purchase up to three diamond-encrusted necklaces for 30 ETH (approximately US$50,000) each from August 5. Each Punk pendant will be set in 18-carat gold (yellow or rose) with 87 different attributes and 159 colours available for the custom designs.

The project was first promoted in April by Tiffany & Co vice president Alexandre Arnault, who revealed his own rose gold and enamel CryptoPunk to the delight of onlookers. The Punk featured sapphire and Mozambique ruby-coloured glasses, and yellow diamond earrings:

Based on the social media reaction, the community appears genuinely excited about the partnership following details of its launch, regardless of the hefty price tags.

The announcement of NFTiff appears to have rekindled interest in CryptoPunks. A 1,400 ETH (US$2.3 million) trade volume was recorded in the wake of the news, representing a 248 percent increase on the previous day, according to OpenSea data. The value of the broader CryptoPunks collection had also risen by 5 percent in the previous 24 hours at the time of writing.

CryptoPunks’ Recent Successes

CryptoPunks had been gaining a small amount of collector interest prior to the Tiffany and Co collaboration. CryptoPunk #4464 notably reversed NFT market trends in mid-July by selling for a massive 2,500 ETH (approximately US$2.6 million). CryptoSlam identified this as the single-largest NFT sale from the previous 30 days, despite typical winter market lows.

CryptoPunks also proved they make good loan collateral as MetaStreet, a liquidity routing and scaling solution for the NFT collateralisation platform, allowed a loan of US$8 million to be collateralised by 101 CryptoPunks.