Category: Crypto Exchange

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Crypto Exchange Hackers Osmosis

Decentralised Exchange ‘Osmosis’ Goes Offline After $5 Million Hack

The Osmosis decentralised exchange (DEX) has gone offline due to a US$5 million liquidity pool exploit. Core developers halted the network after a bug was uncovered by an Osmosis subreddit community member:

Network Suspended for ‘Emergency Maintenance’

Reddit user Straight-Hat3855 discovered the bug in the blockchain and shared it on the ‘Cosmos Network’ – the Osmosis subreddit. Straight-Hat3855 happened on the bug when depositing funds into the liquidity pool and immediately withdrawing them. Upon withdrawal, the value of the funds had unintentionally increased by 50 percent.

At 10:57pm EST, Osmosis’ core developers announced that the chain had been “halted for emergency maintenance”, much to the frustration of users. This emergency stoppage took 12 minutes to coordinate following the discovery of the bug:

Osmosis has since posted an update stating that the liquidity pools were not completely drained. The Osmosis token (OSMO) has been down by 6.96 percent in the past 24 hours.

Hackers Target DEXes

This year has been fraught with assaults on decentralised exchanges. In March, German DEX Li.Finance had one of its smart contracts exploited in an assault that resulted in a US$600,000 combined loss of assets taken from 29 users. Luckily the issue was rectified with a quick turnaround, and the investors were reimbursed.

At the beginning of May, DEX Saddle Finance lost US$14 million to hackers. The automated market maker began working with Bitcoin security organisation BlockSec to locate the funds. However, at the time it was deemed highly unlikely that US$10 million of the $14 million stolen would be recovered.

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Binance Crime Crypto Exchange Crypto News

Binance Denies $2.4 Billion Money Laundering Allegations

According to a new report by Reuters, US$2.4 billion in stolen funds have been laundered through the cryptocurrency exchange Binance between 2017 and 2021. Binance, however, has vehemently denied the allegations, calling the report a “woefully misinformed op-ed”.

‘Analysis False’, Says Binance CCO

The report was conducted using court records, speaking with law enforcement, and working with monitoring firms Chainalysis and Crystal Blockchain to trace illicit funds moved across the exchange. It quotes Patrick Hillman, Binance chief communications officer, who told Reuters that he believed the analysis was false.

According to Hillman, Binance is in the process of assembling “the most sophisticated cyber forensics team on the planet” that would “further improve our ability to detect illegal crypto activity on our platform”.

In a post, Binance defended itself but Reuters maintains its claims. The charge of a “hub” for illegal activity was due to the possibility of users opening accounts and moving funds on Binance with an email address alone, and Reuters claims that the platform allowed them to operate with little to no “Know Your Customer” requirements until August 2021. During this time, the report alleges there were amounts of money flowing through the exchange from malicious actors.

Binance has previously been under investigation by the US Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice in an effort to uncover unreported crypto income from US citizens and other illegal activities on the platform.

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Crypto Exchange Crypto News IDEX Markets

DEX Token (IDEX) Pumps 150% on Launch of Decentralised Perpetual Swaps

The native token of the IDEX decentralised exchange (IDEX) has seen significant gains this week, pumping over 150 percent following the announcement of IDEX version 4, which will feature decentralised perpetual swaps:

According to CoinGecko, on May 16 IDEX was trading at US$0.049 before reaching a high one day later of US$0.126. At the time of writing it was changing hands at US$0.111.

IDEX is planning to launch IDEX v4 within four to eight months, suggesting perpetual swaps could be available on the platform by the end of 2022.

Perpetual Swaps an Opportunity for IDEX to Grow

IDEX refers to itself as a hybrid DEX, or a hybrid-liquidity DEX, meaning it has elements of centralised exchanges (CEXs) – such as order books and order types usually associated with CEXs, like limit orders – all while maintaining the decentralised model that defines DEXs. 

IDEX has seen an opportunity to grow its market share by bringing perpetual swaps to the world of DEXs. Derivatives trading represents about 57 percent of total monthly trading volume in crypto markets, with one of the most popular instruments being perpetual swaps. Offering trading options traditionally dominated by centralised exchanges makes perfect sense for IDEX, given its position as a hybrid exchange.

The large gains seen by IDEX in the past few days mirror the performance of several other small-cap alts since the start of the year, including STEEM, which increased 60 percent following its launch on Binance, and MINA, which pumped 75 percent following its Coinbase listing.

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Crypto Exchange Crypto Wallets Kraken Trading

‘Super Wallet’ is Coming as Crypto Exchanges Will Soon Enable Trading of Stocks

Kraken CEO Jesse Powell featured on Decrypt’s GM podcast last week, in which he stated that the US exchange is currently exploring broadening its offerings to include stocks. Powell also noted that the so-called ‘super wallet’ appears to be a common goal among many exchanges:

One Wallet, Multiple Assets

During the Decrypt podcast, Powell discussed the future of crypto wallets and the exchanges they belong to. He said that ‘super wallets’ – wallets that allow users to buy and trade varying assets, from crypto and NFTs to stocks – were in the sights of many crypto exchanges right now, with Kraken itself exploring the potential of catering to stocks:

I think we’ve said before that [stocks] are something that we’re exploring, and I think [it] makes sense to do [so].

Jesse Powell, Kraken CEO

With crypto already being offered alongside other assets by companies such as Robinhood and eToro, crypto brokerages won’t be far behind. Kraken users are already speculating on how this potential addition could unfold:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/umjq92/bitcoin_exchange_kraken_exploring_stocks_as_part/
Reddit thread on Jesse Powell’s podcast appearance

Kraken Comes to the Aid of Ukraine

Kraken has been making itself visible over the past two years via multiple company moves. The most notable of these has been its dedication to aiding fundraising for Ukraine. In March, the company announced it would be distributing over US$10 million to relief efforts in the wartorn country, along with the waiving of exchange fees for Ukrainian addresses.  

In June 2021, the company decided to re-evaluate its launch plans following the poor performance of Coinbase’s IPO, stating that a direct listing might have a long-run “dampening effect” if Kraken continued with its plans to go public.

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Crypto Exchange DeFi Hackers

Stablecoin DEX ‘Saddle Finance’ Exploited for $10 Million

Decentralised exchange Saddle Finance was hacked over the weekend, resulting in the loss of over US$10 million in funds. The DEX is working with blockchain security organisation BlockSec to return some of the lost funds and at the time of writing the identity of the hacker remained unknown.

Saddle Finance is an automated market maker that specialises in the trading of stablecoins and other pegged assets such as wrapped BTC.

Timeline of the Hack

According to on-chain data, the hack occurred at 7:40am UTC on April 30, with the hacker initially stealing approximately US$14.8 million in assets. 

Twitter user @web3isgreat, who catalogues blockchain hacks, claims it was a flash loan attack and, once stolen, the assets were funnelled through Tornado Cash to anonymise the transactions and make tracking the hacker virtually impossible:

Based on Twitter interactions, it appears BlockSec’s monitoring and attack blocking systems detected the exploit shortly after it began. Once aware of the attack, BlockSec tweeted an alert to Saddle Finance:

Around 20 minutes later, Saddle Finance tweeted that it was investigating a “possible exploit” and had paused pool withdrawals, later clarifying that only metapool withdrawals had been suspended:

Around two hours after it was first notified about the hack, Saddle tweeted that BlockSec had been able to secure approximately US$3.8 million of the lost funds:

In all, over US$10 million in assets remain missing with little chance of recovery.

In a worrying trend, DeFi hacks are becoming an increasingly common occurrence. In February, Meter.io was hacked for US$4.4 million and March saw Axie Infinity lose US$625 million in what has since been assessed as the largest DeFi exploit on record.

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Crypto Exchange Education NFTs Zipmex

Zipmex Partners NRL and A-League Teams to ‘Boost Crypto Literacy’

Singapore-based crypto exchange Zipmex has partnered with Australian National Rugby League (NRL) premiership club Penrith Panthers and A-League football club Central Coast Mariners to elevate sports fans’ crypto literacy and expand the exchange’s customer base.

The partnership also includes some smaller community sports clubs – Wyong Rugby League Football Club, also based on the NSW Central Coast, along with Penrith Brothers RLFC and soccer club Penrith Rovers, both based in western Sydney.

Focus on Crypto Education and Giveaways

The partnership will focus on educating the clubs’ fans and members about cryptocurrency by running a series of workshops aimed at crypto newbies.

Zipmex plans to have a regular presence at home games for both the Penrith Panthers and Central Coast Mariners, manning information booths, running giveaways of up to A$500 in BTC, and creating NFTs of high-profile players.

The community-based clubs will see similar types of engagement and education, presumably on a smaller scale.

Zipmex Pushing to Grow its Share of Australian Market

These partnerships form part of Zipmex’s recent push to raise its profile and grow its share of the Australian crypto exchange market. 

The exchange has launched several new products into the Australian market recently, including ZipUp, its high-yield, no lock-in staking program, introduced earlier this month. In March the exchange also partnered with New Venture Wealth to offer Australians the opportunity to hold crypto in their self-managed super funds.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Crypto Exchange Press Release Trading

BTC.com.au Expands Its Footprint, Becoming Australia’s Newest Full-Fledged Crypto Trading Platform

The expansion offers higher liquidity and makes trading easier for users of all experience levels.

BTC.com.au, launched in 2018 as one of Australia’s first crypto trading platforms, has announced an expansion of its business model. Since its launch, BTC.com.au has been a Bitcoin-only focused service. But with its expansion, BTC.com.au will now serve as a full-fledged exchange giving traders access to today’s most popular tokens and serving as a one-stop trading platform.

By expanding its offerings, BTC.com.au aims to become the only exchange that those looking to buy, sell, and exchange crypto need. The platform has gone from being a Bitcoin-exclusive exchange to now boasting over 20 cryptocurrencies and growing weekly. The development team has focused on creating an easy ecosystem for crypto investors of all experience levels to use while ensuring the highest level of security.

BTC.com.au’s New Trading Platform

In building its new platform, the BTC.com.au team has added new features and expanded the capabilities of those previously enjoyed by its community. The user-friendly interface lets users buy and sell crypto faster without getting bogged down with slow-loading sites and complicated graphics. Faster payments are also a welcomed new feature, with an instant settlement protocol when users sell their crypto. Australian users also enjoy streamlined integration with select Aussie banks to make retrieving their funds easier. The team is also working on launching its BTC Earn program in the coming months, which will allow users to earn interest on their crypto holdings.

Since its inception, BTC.com.au has aimed to be at the forefront of the cryptocurrency sector. To continue to build on this mission, we have now expanded our exchange, creating the token offerings, services, and ease-of-use that will make it the only crypto platforms users need, especially our fellow Aussies.

Domenic Favaloro, COO BTC.com.au

Enhance Liquidity

The team has also focused on building deeper liquidity and faster execution times on trades. Users enjoy lower transaction rates, boosting their portfolio’s values while also having access to advanced funding options. BTC.com.au also allows investors to set up advanced orders with its state-of-the-art API, further putting users in control of their portfolios.

Custodial Service

With the platform’s growth, BTC.com.au is also pivoting from a non-custodial service to a custodial service, giving investors a secure digital location to store their funds. To protect users’ funds, the team has built its wallet to adhere to the strictest safety measures in the industry by utilising the top crypto and digital asset platform for institutions.

Local Support

As an Aussie company, BTC.com.au is also committed to keeping its support local to serve its Australian users better. The support team is located in BTC.com.au’s Sydney office and offers support driven by real people instead of bots or recorded messages.

To learn more and to sign up for the exchange, visit BTC.com.au.

Categories
Bored Ape Yacht Club Coinbase Crypto Exchange Crypto News NFTs

Coinbase Set to Launch 3 Animated Bored Ape-Themed Short Films

Crypto exchange Coinbase has issued a casting call to all Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT holders who’d like to see their simians featured in an upcoming animated series of short films.

The production, a three-part series titled The Degen Trilogy, designed to tie in with the exchange’s long-rumoured NFT marketplace, has called for submissions up until April 13.

Missed Out? There’s Always Part Two or Three

Ape owners who make the casting cut will receive a licensing fee of US$10,000 in ApeCoin or bitcoin, according to the film’s website, and those who miss out may be eligible for the remaining instalments of the proposed trilogy:

The film is set in the 2020s in a “chaotic” New York City where “for the first time, digital goods and services have outpaced all other indicators as a measure of value in the market”, according to the prologue.

As the old system crumbles, whole new realms spring forth from the ashes. (…) Enter the Degens. A new class of social adept, versed in the constantly re-invented tools of an ever accelerating economy.

Prologue, The Degen Trilogy

Coinbase Admits Project May Not Make Any Money

While Coinbase has said that it is unlikely to profit from the series, any proceeds would be donated to an as-yet unnamed non-profit organisation. The company added that the point of the trilogy is to “reward and connect with our communities through projects that bring the ethos of Web3 to life: collaboration, transparency, and opportunity”.

The first episode will be released at the NFT.NYC conference, scheduled to take place from June 20-23, with parts two and three to follow over the subsequent year. A Coinbase wallet is required to access the film’s website, although not to view the films.

Last week, director Kevin Smith was excoriated on Twitter after announcing his next film would be launched as an NFT. And late last year, BlockbusterDAO announced its intention to relaunch the Blockbuster brand as a film streaming service with future plans for movie financing and production.

With signs of NFT fatigue beginning to set in, it will be interesting to see whether any of these projects gets off the ground:

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Crypto Exchange Crypto Staking Cryptocurrencies Insurance Tokens Zipmex

Zipmex’s Crypto Staking Program Offers Australians Up to 10% APY Interest with No Lock-in Period

Zipmex, one of the major established and regulated Australian digital asset exchanges, has recently launched a new product offering in Australia called ZipUp which offers attractive crypto yield returns.

Along with your regular cryptocurrency buying and selling, with Zipmex you can now use a “ZipUp” crypto staking account that gives daily rewards on your crypto. One of the attractive features of this account is having the flexibility of being able to withdraw and deposit any amount, anytime – with no lock-in period.

Zipmex’s Crypto Staking Rewards

Following December’s successful launch of its “ZLaunch” token reward program, Zipmex is now offering users interest rates of up to 10 percent on some digital assets on its ZipUp+ program.

ZipUp+ allows users to enjoy daily crypto bonuses on Bitcoin (BTC), Zipmex Token (ZMT), Ethereum (ETH), US Dollar Coin (USDC), Tether Coin (USDT), and Litecoin (LTC). The rewards are calculated based on the user’s VIP level, and higher rates are on offer for those who lock up their Zipmex Tokens (ZMT).

The full rewards table is outlined below and available on Zipmex’s website.

Zipmex earning schedules by VIP Levels. Source: Zipmex

Given that banks are currently offering little interest on savings accounts, the demand for interest on crypto is high, despite some crypto exchanges dropping interest rates.

What makes Zipmex+ attractive to users in search of a yield is that there is no minimum deposit amount and no lock-in period. Through Zipmex’s easy-to-use app interface, users can withdraw, trade or deposit anytime while enjoying daily crypto rewards.

Read our guide on how to stake your crypto with Zipmex.

How to Participate

Users interested in earning daily rewards on their crypto can sign up and get A$20 free in ZMT and then start staking their crypto to earn daily rewards.

About Zipmex

Zipmex is a trusted AUSTRAC-registered exchange with millions of users across Australia and Asia who enjoy 24/7 customer support, and instant trades, withdrawals and deposits.

With transaction fees as low as 0.1 percent per transaction, the platform is well suited for traders and HODLers alike.

The company is also duly registered with Blockchain Australia and backed by subsidiaries of the Mitsubishi Financial Group, a leading global financial services group and one of the largest banking institutions in Japan.

Read our full review on Zipmex here.

Categories
Crypto Exchange Crypto News Hydra Markets Russia

World’s Largest Darknet Market Gets Taken Down

A German/US joint operation has seen Hydra Market – the world’s largest darknet marketplace – shut down. At the same time, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned wallets and a Russian cryptocurrency exchange known for money laundering.

The marketplace offered a variety of services, from allegedly arranging drug transactions to money laundering. OFAC sanctioned more than 100 cryptocurrency addresses related to Hydra, adding them to its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) list.

Darknet market share of total market. Source: Chainalysis

The Russian-based Hydra Market has been the largest darknet market for the past few years, even though it only served Russian-speaking countries. In 2021, Hydra received more than US$1.7 billion worth of cryptocurrency, which accounts for over 75 percent of all darknet market revenue globally.

Money Laundering Staunched by Hydra’s Closure

In fact, since 2020, Hydra received US$645 million worth of cryptocurrency from illicit sources, including other darknet markets, wallets holding stolen funds, ransomware operators, and scammers. Chainalysis believes much of this was due to its widely used money-laundering services.

A vendor listing for a money-laundering service on Hydra.

Russian Crypto Exchange Goes Down With Hydra

Garantex is a sizeable crypto exchange based in Russia and, according to the Chainalysis 2022 Crime Report, is also the largest platform for money laundering in Moscow, having received more than US$10 million from known ransomware strains including NetWalker, Phoenix Cryptolocker, and Conti.

Following the closure of Hydra, OFAC has also sanctioned Garantex, which has been previously investigated for its money-laundering indiscretions.

Illicit Activity a Fraction of Total Transaction Volume

As it stands, illicit activity represents only a small portion of total transaction volume as adoption in the crypto space has soared. The level of criminality on the blockchain has lessened considerably, with illicit transactions accounting for a much smaller segment of the total.

Across all cryptocurrencies tracked by Chainalysis, total transaction volume grew to US$15.8 trillion in 2021, up 567 per cent on 2020’s totals. Given the massive increase in adoption, it’s no surprise that more cybercriminals are using cryptocurrency. But the fact that the increase in illicit transaction volume was nearly an order of magnitude lower than overall adoption shows that illicit activity may be in decline.