Category: Crypto Wallets

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Crypto News Crypto Wallets Metaverse NFTs Social media

Instagram CEO Admits It is “Exploring” NFTs

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri has revealed the social network giant could possibly integrate NFT features to its platform, as per a Q&A posted on his Stories.

Nothing Official … Yet

During the Q&A, a user asked Mosseri his thoughts about NFTs and if there was any chance they would soon be integrated into Instagram. Messari tweeted that while there’s nothing official yet, the platform is “actively exploring” NFTs and how to take the best out of the space.

Nothing to announce yet but we are definitely actively exploring NFTs and how we can make them more accessible to a broader audience. I think it’s an interesting place that we can play … and also a way to hopefully help creators.

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri

Instagram Has Been Working Quietly on NFT Collectibles

Rumours of the Meta-owned photo-sharing giant exploring the NFT market started in early 2021 when digital artist Sean Williams posted a Twitter thread claiming that the app was building an NFT platform and reaching out to digital artists in the community.

It wouldn’t come as a surprise if Instagram announced support for NFTs anytime soon, considering the extant NFT boom and the rapid expansion of the Metaverse, propelled by Facebook’s decision to rebrand itself to Meta.

On top of that, app developer Alessandro Paluzzi has stated numerous times that Instagram was already working towards the integration of digital wallets such as MetaMask, Coinbase and Novi.

Social Media Giants Moving Toward Crypto

The crypto community is witnessing social media giants embracing crypto and blockchain technology, with Jack Dorsey’s Twitter one of the biggest advocates. Twitter Crypto is the name of the recently created team in charge of bringing blockchain, DApps (decentralised applications), and all things crypto to the platform for a variety of use cases.

The NFT space is expanding fast, but of course not everybody is an expert on the topic, a reason why so many scammers are taking advantage of boom to fool naive investors. To help fight theft, Adobe is preparing a tool that will assist users in proving that the person selling an NFT is the actual owner.

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Betting Crypto News Crypto Wallets Gambling Gaming Sports

Exodus Wallet Enables Sports Betting with USDC Using Polygon Blockchain

Blockchain, cryptos and smart contracts are changing the world as we know it, and now have moved into the world of esports, particularly online betting. A recent example is cryptocurrency wallet Exodus integrating with SportX, an online sports and cryptos betting platform, to allow its users to wager on esports games on the Polygon network.

Exodus Gets Into Esports

Exodus is a wallet that helps individuals control their wealth independent of old banking models and free from institutional control. Integration with SportX gives its users the ability to wager on esports games via smart contracts executed on the Polygon network.

The newly announced partnership gives Exodus’s one million-plus users access to SportX’s decentralised betting exchange, where users can wager on a wide array of sports and esports games using cryptos. The minimum bet allowed is US$5, denominated in USD Coin (USDC), which can be directly sent to the Exodus wallet or exchanged from any of the 138 cryptos it supports.

As it stands, SportX is authorised for use in South America, Canada, most European countries excluding France and the Netherlands, and throughout most of Asia.

SportX Also Allows Betting on Crypto Prices

SportX allows users to bet on the outcomes of their favourite sports, esports and also on crypto prices, bringing cryptocurrencies and betting together with the use of smart contract protocols. This capability ensures users’ funds are protected and payouts are guaranteed on time using the Polygon network. The platform also gives players the option to bet on future price fluctuations of major cryptos such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

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Blockchain Crypto News Crypto Wallets Gaming Hackers Scams

96 Private Keys Stolen From Vulcan Forged Crypto Gaming Platform in $140 Million Theft

A hacker who exploited Polygon gaming platform and NFT marketplace Vulcan Forged was able to steal a total of over 4.5 million of the $PYR native token, valued at US$140 million at the time of the December 14 attack. A total of 96 users’ wallets were accessed by the hacker via private keys.

‘Darkest Day in our History’

CEO Jamie Thomson described the situation as “the darkest day in the Vulcan Forged history” in this video posted on the company’s Twitter account:

The hacker was able to attack the Vulcan Forged servers, gaining access to the vending credentials of the semi-custodial wallets and then extracting the private keys of the game’s users. To prevent any repeat of the exploit, Thomson says the platform will in future be using nothing other than decentralised wallets “so we never have to encounter this problem again”.

Full Refunds and a Heartfelt Apology

Refunds have been made to every wallet that had the game’s native $PYR tokens stolen, and Vulcan Forged will also be reimbursing the loss of any Matic and Eth tokens stolen from users. Ending with a sincere apology to the community, Thomson said: “obviously sorry doesn’t cut it, but we are sorry”.

It has been a disappointing outcome for the Vulcan Forged team, not to mention players and investors. $PYR dropped in value by over 30 percent in the 24 hours post the hack.

In a similar incident last month, the bZx DeFi protocol had funds drained from its Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Polygon contracts after one of the developers had his private key stolen in a phishing attack.

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Crypto News Crypto Wallets Cryptocurrencies Hackers Stablecoins Tokens

Crypto Exchange AscendEX Loses $80 Million in Hot Wallet Exploit

Crypto exchange AscendEX has lost over US$77 million worth of several high-profile cryptocurrencies, including Ether (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB) and various Polygon tokens, in a breach of its hot wallet.

Three Blockchains Affected

On December 11, AscendEX tweeted about the incident, reporting that it had detected a “number of ERC-20, BSC, and Polygon tokens transferred from our hot wallet”. More than US$77 million worth of various tokens across three blockchains was drained by the hacker(s).

$60 Million in ETH Stolen

The amount stolen was known after security firm PeckShield conducted research on the incident. According to the firm’s experts, the estimated losses were: US$60 million on Ethereum, $9.2 million on Binance Chain, and $8.5 million on Polygon. Stolen tokens included several stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC), along with DeFi tokens including Compound (COMP), Aave (AAVE), and the popular memecoin Shiba Inu (SHIB).

The event comes shortly after Crypto News Australia reported the US$200 million hack on centralised US crypto exchange BitMart, which suffered one of the biggest security breaches in crypto history on December 4.

Another exchange to have suffered a major security breach is Hong Kong-based platform Bilaxy, which lost US$450 million worth of several ERC-20 tokens in an August incident.

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Crypto News Crypto Wallets Hackers

Users of Pirated Windows Software Could Be Losing Bitcoin to Crypto Malware

Software pirates that use the KMSPico tool to activate Windows on their computers might also be inadvertently opening the doors for malware to steal crypto right out of their wallets.

Red Canary in the Coalmine

The issue, first spotted by security research firm Red Canary, was that users who installed cracked software – in this case a fake KMSPico installer – had opened up their computers to malware that could steal credentials straight off a PC.

KMSPico is a tool used to activate the full features of Microsoft Windows and Office products without the user actually owning a licence key. Alongside the difficulty in finding a clean download, the antivirus disabling instructions prepare unwitting victims to receive malware.

Crypto Wallets Beware

A classic stowaway on cracked software like KSMPico is Cryptbot, which harms people and organisations by stealing credentials and other sensitive information from affected systems. Cryptbot is able to collect sensitive information from a wide range of applications, including browsers and wallet applications such as:

  • Brave browser
  • Opera web browser
  • Google Chrome web browser
  • Mozilla Firefox web browser
  • Atomic cryptocurrency wallet
  • Electrum cryptocurrency wallet
  • Exodus cryptocurrency wallet
  • Monero cryptocurrency wallet

The list goes on, but you get the point.

Given the potential profitable rewards involved in cryptocurrency, malware, hacking and other forms of intrusion have been a continual thorn in the side of crypto users. Schemes have ranged from ‘Babadeda’ targeting users on Discord to fraudulent crypto apps designed to steal users’ private keys. According to a report from Google, 86 per cent of Cloud accounts hacked are then used to mine crypto.

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Australia Crypto Exchange Crypto News Crypto Wallets

Australian Exchange MyCryptoWallet Goes into Liquidation

MyCryptoWallet, an Australian exchange claiming to be the first to offer zero fees trading, has collapsed and gone into liquidation. This has left some users with a sinking feeling after being have been unable to access their accounts to withdraw their investments.

Not the First Issue?

Earlier this year, Crypto New Australia reported that alarm bells had been raised when the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) had been called in to investigate complaints from several MyCryptoWallet users claiming they were unable to access their crypto assets. But this wasn’t even the first complaint.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Melbourne-based exchange is said to have signed up over 20,000 users in its first three months of operation, after launching in late 2017. However trouble arose in 2019 following a dispute with NAB which resulted in the company’s accounts being frozen.

Later that year, the company once again ran into difficulties, this time with its technology partners, leaving users unable to withdraw funds from the exchange. Thereafter, the complaints continued with some users being unable to access their accounts, others unable to trade using 2FA systems or some, not being able to load the company’s website at all.

Jaryd Koenigsmann, former CEO MyCryptoWallet. Source: MyCryptoWallet

A Bitter Ending for MyCrypto Wallet – Liquidation

This past Friday, December 3, the company’s 28-year-old chief executive Jaryd Koenigsmann called in administrators, according to documents lodged with the corporate regulator.

Shortly after, Terry van der Velde of SV Partners was appointed as liquidator of the company. While it is too early to establish how many creditors there were and how much is owed, a report is expected to be filed December 17.

To help creditors recover at least a portion of their investments, Mr Van der Velde is now on the hunt to find a buyer for MyCryptoWallet’s technology infrastructure.

SV Partners will be formally releasing an Expressions of Interest Memorandum by approximately 10 December for an opportunity to purchase the technological infrastructure of the business.

Terry van der Velde, SV Partners

Much like in the past, the exchange’s collapse has left an unknown number of aggrieved customers unable to access their funds. The writing appears to have been on the wall for some time as as users have been unable to get in touch with anyone from MyCryptoWallet.

Mr Koenigsmann too appears to have foreshadowed what was coming, having reportedly listed his Melbourne home for sale in July with an asking price of A$1.3m.

The story of MyCryptoWallet, although unfortunate, is a cautionary one. It provides a timely reminder that investors must conduct a due diligence into the credibility and track record of a crypto exchange, or any crypto company for that matter. Bad customer service and blocking withdrawals are just two of the red flags users should be looking out for.

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Crypto Exchange Crypto News Crypto Wallets Hackers Tokens

BitMart Exchange Hacked for $200 Million

The centralised US crypto exchange BitMart has been hit by one of the most devastating hacks to date, draining an estimated US$196 million in various cryptocurrencies.

According to a Twitter thread by Sheldon Xia, founder and CEO of BitMart, on December 5 a “large-scale breach” of its Ethereum (ETH) and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) hot wallets was discovered. The losses were estimated to be around US$200 million by security firm PeckShield, who picked it up as it was happening.

Attackers Targeting Important Private Keys

According to an official update, withdrawals have been suspended and all other wallets are secured and unharmed, as fortunately “ETH hot wallet and BSC hot wallet carry a small percentage of assets on BitMart”. Xia later announced that the breaches had been caused by a stolen private key that the attackers used to gain access to the wallets.

The hacker made away with a mix of more than 20 tokens, including altcoins such as Binance Coin (BNB), Safemoon, BSC-USD and BNBBPay (BPay), as well as sizeable amounts of memecoins such as BabyDoge, Floki and Moonshot.

After the funds were leached, they were systematically swapped for Ether (ETH) using decentralised exchange (DEX) aggregator 1inch, and thereafter deposited into privacy mixer Tornado Cash, which made the hacked funds harder to track.

In August, Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency trading platform Bilaxy also suffered a serious attack, losing an estimated US$450 million.

BitMart to Compensate Affected Users

In terms of asset deposits and withdrawals, BitMart is confident that these functions will gradually begin from December 7. The affected users at least have a silver lining after BitMart made a statement that they would be compensated and pools refunded.

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Crypto News Crypto Wallets Economics Investing NFTs Travel

Thailand Wants to Attract Crypto Millionaires to Revive Tourism

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is looking into ways of boosting the country’s post-pandemic economy. Enter cryptos. The South-East Asian kingdom aims to attract crypto-millionaires to spend their newfound wealth in the hopes of becoming a “crypto-positive society”.

Thailand Facilitates the Use of Crypto

According to Bloomberg, Thailand is looking to attract individuals who have “become wealthy from holding digital currencies” to its shores in an effort to boost its pandemic-ridden economy. As a result of Covid-19, the tourism contribution to the country’s GDP dropped from 18.21 percent in 2019 to 6.78 percent in 2020. The Thai tourism authority will now seek to recoup some of the US$80 billion lost in revenue due to the pandemic.

The TAT has indicated that it is working with regulators and a local crypto exchange to make it easier for crypto holders to spend their currencies in Thailand. According to TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn, the authority will set up a new unit to issue its own crypto, develop a wallet and build a new tourism ecosystem in 2022.

The Governor said crypto holders may now be looking to spend their riches and added: “If they can use their currencies here without having to exchange [them], or be faced with government taxes, then it would create convenience for them.” Supasorn also noted that embracing cryptos would help the country recover its tourism sector.

Crypto is the future, so we must make Thailand a crypto-positive society to welcome this group of quality tourists. 

Yuthasak Supasorn, Governor, Tourism Authority of Thailand

Crypto Acceptance Could Help the Global Tourism Sector

The pandemic has had a far-reaching global economic impact, and none more so than in the tourism sector. Despite a major global economic downturn over the past year, cryptos have surged to new heights and can now help industries recover as the acceptance of cryptos also grows.

Earlier this year, luxury hotel chain Kessler Collection announced it would be accepting payments in cryptocurrencies going forward. The announcement was made after it had taken up a partnership with BitPay, which will oversee the payment processing part of the deal.

Hand-in-hand with aiding the tourism industry, cryptos have also been deployed in wildlife conservation. The endangered Seychelles magpie robin is now available to purchase digitally in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Funds generated from sales will help finance conservation efforts for the rare bird, indirectly boosting tourism in the Indian Ocean archipelago.

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Crypto News Crypto Wallets Cryptocurrencies DeFi Scams

New Malware ‘Babadeda’ is Targeting Crypto Users on Discord

A highly sophisticated and very dangerous crypter is loose in the crypto community. It has been named the Babadeda crypter and is targeting NFT and DeFi users.

Babadeda translates to “Grandma-Grandpa” – a Russian language placeholder used by the crypter itself, giving away hints to its origin. The malware is targeting cryptocurrency enthusiasts on the popular crypto community chat app Discord. Since May this year, bad actors have been fooling users into downloading Babadeda, disguised as a legitimate app.

The scammers are able to lure victims by taking over popular crypto channels in the NFT and DeFi communities on Discord, posing very convincingly as the official Admin. Users are being fooled into clicking on and downloading a malicious file that will install the crypter on their machine. The code is so sneaky that it is able to evade detection by most anti-malware software, successfully hiding within the computer’s files by masquerading as a known application.

Once on a victim’s machine, masquerading as a known application with a complex obfuscation also means that anyone relying on signature-based malware effectively has no way of knowing Babadeda is on their machine – or of stopping it from executing.

Morphisec blog

Links to Babadeda Posted as Official Announcements

The threat actor sends users a private message or posts a link through the Admin chat inviting them to download an application related to the channel. Below is an example of the Discord Channel for blockchain-based action-adventure game Mines of Dalarnia, where a link to Babadeda has been posted as an official announcement, appearing to come from the channel’s own Admin account.

If a user clicks on the provided URL, they will be rerouted to a fake decoy site whose branding is almost exactly the same as that of the project it is imitating. The attackers use very advanced measures to ensure the delivery chain looks legitimate, even to the most technically aware users. Through cybersquatting, they can make the URLs of the decoy websites resemble those of genuine ones. They even use SSL certificates generated by Let’s Encrypt to further appear completely legitimate and add to the deception.

When the user clicks on “download app” from the decoy site, the malicious installer embeds the Babadeda crypter onto the victim’s machine. Then it’s game over.

Discord is a Dangerous Place for the Average Degen

The takeaway: be careful and go slowly. Discord is rife with scams like this. You can have all the fancy malware protection money can buy, but if you accidentally click on a dodgy link and install a malicious application on your computer, you could leave yourself open to an attacker who can empty the contents of your crypto wallet quicker than you can figure out what happened.

In related news, two weeks ago Crypto News Australia reported on the Fake MetaMask Google Ad scam, a phishing/ad scam directing victims to the fake site maskmeta, instead of the official metamask.io url. It’s another cautionary tale.

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Coinbase Crypto Wallets DeFi Tokens

Breadwallet BRD Token Skyrockets 500% After Being Acquired by Coinbase

Breadwallet, an open-source digital wallet, has seen its native token BRD surge by 400 percent following its listing on Coinbase.

Following its November 24 announcement that crypto exchange Coinbase had acquired the BRD token, the Breadwallet team revealed it would be working with the firm to provide a more decentralised service and accelerate Web3 adoption:

Shortly after, the BRD saw a massive price boost of 500 percent. Data from Messari shows the token has returned more than 370 percent in a three-month period:

As per the wallet, the team said the listing won’t affect the BRD wallet app.

Nothing will change in the BRD wallet app and, as always, your funds are safe and secure. In the future, BRD wallet users will have an optional migration path to self-custody with Coinbase Wallet.

Breadwallet team statement

A Coinbase Listing Has a Massive Effect on a Token’s Price

Being acquired by Coinbase can be one of the best things that can happen to crypto and blockchain developers, as the firm is a well-known institution in the crypto industry. The BRD token is one of the many coins that have surged tremendously after getting listed on the exchange. An example is the Voyager token (VGX), an ERC-20 that soared 44 percent overnight after being listed on Coinbase Pro.

Another clear example is CRO, Crypto.com’s utility token. Earlier this month, Crypto News Australia reported that the CRO token had rallied 30 percent after being listed on the exchange.