Atomic Wallet Security Breach Results in $35 Million Crypto Heist

Audy Castañeda
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<strong>Atomic Wallet Security Breach Results in $35 Million Crypto Heist</strong>

Yesterday, the developers of the multi-chain wallet took to Twitter to announce that they had received reports of account compromises from a small number of users.

Millions of dollars in cryptocurrency were stolen from Atomic Wallet customers. On Saturday, the project developers admitted that their users’ data had been compromised.

Atomic Wallet is a cryptocurrency wallet that works on both mobile and desktop. Multiple platforms including Windows, Android, iOS, macOS, as well as Linux, support the wallet.

Atomic Wallet Hack: How Much Was Lost?

On June 3, the project developers announced the hack via Twitter in the following terms:

“We have received reports of wallets being compromised. We are doing all we can to investigate and analyse the situation. As we have more information, we will share it accordingly.”

Over a hundred addresses were compromised and Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, BSC, Cardano, Ripple, Polkadot, Cosmos, Algorand, Avalanche, Litecoin and Dogecoin assets were taken.

Early indications point to around $35 million being lost. The largest individual loss amounts to 7.95 million USDT. According to network detective ZachXBT, the five biggest losses add up to $17 million.

Early Warning Signs

Since users’ private keys are encrypted and stored locally on their devices, Atomic Wallet believes this makes their product more secure. However, the latest incident proves otherwise.

In fact, the wallet’s vulnerability was evident as early as February 2021. That year, auditing firm Least Authority issued red flags, saying that Atomic Wallet is “insufficiently secure to protect users’ private data and assets.”

User @Christomos03 tweeted the following:

“God damn, all of my hard-working money has been vanished from atomic wallet only!!!!  This is your responsibility to secure the funds. What will happen to our funds? please do not copy-paste anything here! just give all clear answer, Many users are faced with this today!!”

Twitter users also alleged that funds from the Atomic Wallet app had been previously stolen. Reacting to the post, Ignas DeFi Research wrote the following:

“Atomic wallet, despite being around for years, still gets hacked. I’m trying out several software wallets, but for peace of mind, multisig wins for long-term storage. Unfortunately, it’s not the most user-friendly way, but you’ll sleep better at night.”

Liquidity Issues and Criticism

Atomic Wallet has recently come under fire for offering the $BEN token, the meme coin established by “BitBoy” Ben Armstrong, and for the liquidity problems of its native token, Atomic Wallet Coin (AWC), which fell 8% today.

Atomic Wallet is currently surveying victims, asking them about their operating system, software download location, last actions before the cryptocurrency theft, and backup phrase storage location.

As of June 4, Atomic Wallet has updated information via Twitter:

“At the moment less than 1% of our monthly active users have been affected/reported. The last drained transaction was confirmed over 40h ago. Security investigation is ongoing. We report victim addresses to major exchanges & Blockchain analytics to trace and block the stolen funds.”

In order to identify potential attack vectors, the wallet service provider said it is collaborating with leading security firms. The research team has not been able to confirm anything so far.

By Audy Castaneda

US Treasury Seeks to Recover Its Balance: How Does this Affect Bitcoin?

Audy Castañeda
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US Treasury Seeks to Recover Its Balance: How Does this Affect Bitcoin?

The set of institutional measures in the United States, after going through the so-called debt ceiling drama, affects Bitcoin and other assets.

Recently, The US House of Representatives temporarily removed the restricted borrowing limit until the 2024 election, and the Senate followed suit then. The relief appears to give markets some hope. However, risk assets such as Bitcoin are presented with a new challenge that negatively affects their projection.

Basically, it is that the Treasury Department must rebuild its balance sheet after assuming the government deficit for months. Since the end of January, when the debt ceiling was reached, the Department assumed the expense, while an agreement was reached. Now, with the happy ending to the matter, the storm could settle on some risky assets, according to Citigroup.

A group of analysts from Citigroup, in a note addressed to their clients, state that the Treasury will issue $1 trillion in bills. They argue that this massive amount of collection is necessary to continue assuming the expenses of that agency, but it becomes a hammer on risk assets.

Treasury Bill Rebuild Negatively Affects Bitcoin

It is more than striking that rebuilding empty Treasury accounts negatively affects Bitcoin. In theory, being a decentralized asset, the cryptocurrency should have positive performance in the face of problems from entities such as the government. However, there are aspects that turn that rationing around, at least that’s what Citi experts think.

The short-term outlook for digital currencies is not presented as its investors would like. The latter also applies to Ether and the main assets of that market.

“Both coins average negative returns in these scenarios, and BTC has significantly underperformed in the median case,” notes Citi strategist Alex Saunders.

Hence, it is an immediate task for the Treasury to fill it up again to pay its obligations, estimated at $1 trillion, through T-bills. by the end of the third quarter. Such a movement negatively affects risky assets and particularly Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrencies and the Banking Sector against the Ropes

According to this dynamic put forward by Citi, excess supply can drain liquidity from the banking sector. To this would be added the increase in financing rates in the short term on the brink of recession. For cryptocurrencies, this does not bode well in the early stages of recovery from the debt ceiling drama.

While Bitcoin has been presenting a positive rhythm during the last few hours, its price is unable to hold firmly above the 27K barrier. For strategists, the crypto market “is not immune to debt default fears.”

In this sense, its performance was negative in moments of widespread fear and positive when there were kind headlines. That fact places BTC within the destination of risky assets, according to Citi.

The good performance in March during the banking crisis is not an identical scenario (at least in magnitude) to the risk of US government default. This mere fact, strategists explain, “does not have good projections for decentralized assets.”

Thus, the spillover effect of the debt ceiling drama affects Bitcoin in the same way as any risky asset.

Bitcoin suffered its first negative month of 2023 in May and the trend could extend. According to analysts quoted by Bloomberg, if the coin fails to hold above 25K it could suffer a strong sell-off.

By Audy Castaneda

Russian Official Faces Accusation of Accepting a $28 Million BTC Bribe

Audy Castañeda
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<strong>Russian Official Faces Accusation of Accepting a $28 Million BTC Bribe</strong>

Reports suggest that a Russian official allegedly accepted $28 million worth of BTC bribes. The official reportedly accepted large bribes from a group that was under its own investigation. The use of cryptocurrencies in Russia has seen a constant increase since the previous year.

A Russian government official, Marat Tambiev, allegedly collected $28 million in Bitcoin bribes from a hacker group he was investigating.

Local outlet Kommersant was the first to report on the incident, describing it as the country’s biggest bribery case.

Over 1,000 BTC in Bribes

Prosecutors first learned of the Bitcoin bribes while investigating a criminal corruption charge against Tamblev. They found out that he owns 1,032.1 BTC.

According to authorities, Tambiev received the bribe on April 7, 2022, from hacking group Infraud Organization Mark and group members Konstantin Bergmanov and Kirill Samokutyaevsky. The report said Tambiev accepted the bribe in exchange for not seizing the illegal assets of the hackers he was investigating.

Kommersant noted that the hackers received suspended sentences of 2.5 to 3.5 years. Authorities recovered around $8.6 million worth of Bitcoin from the criminals.

Tamblev is also the head of an investigative department of the Moscow Tver District Committee and received funds from the hackers while in that position. His corruption led to the termination of his employment.

The Deputy Prosecutor General noted that Tambiev had received 11.7 million rubles (less than $150,000) during his tenure on the Investigative Committee. The fact that he held $28 million worth of Bitcoin “indicates receipt of assets from sources not provided for by law,” he said.

According to Kommersant, Tambiev is due to appear in court on June 5, when the prosecutor will seek to seize all of his ill-gotten funds. He has been fighting the accusations and has denied the corruption charges.

Furthermore, Tamblev recently sued the Investigative Committee and sought reinstatement because the investigation was ongoing and the charges had not been proven. However, the suit was dismissed after a departmental audit proved corruption, as reported by Kommersant.

Use of Cryptocurrencies in Russia on the Rise

Russia is one of many countries actively considering cryptocurrency regulation amid its increasing rate of adoption and usage.

The country recently canceled plans to establish a national crypto exchange and would instead focus on regulating such platforms. The head of the State Duma Committee on the financial market, Anatoly Aksakov, noted that the country would formulate rules for establishing such cryptocurrency exchanges.

One of the largest banks in Russia, Rosbank, recently completed cross-border transactions in cryptocurrencies. This follows the Russian central bank’s attempt to allow the use of crypto for international deals.

Russia has been inclined towards cryptocurrencies ever since Western countries heavily sanctioned the country, following their invasion of Ukraine.

Furthermore, Russia was the second largest Bitcoin miner after the United States in the first three months of 2023. According to the report, mining activities in the country are supported by the government, as authorities seek to subsidize a new 100-megawatt mining center in eastern Siberia.

Despite these positive moves, cryptocurrencies cannot be used as a form of payment within the country. In July 2022, President Putin banned the use of digital assets as a method of payment for goods and services.

By Audy Castaneda

Why Did Bitcoin’s BTC Price Stay Above USD 27000 Over the Weekend?

Marina Meza
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Why Did Bitcoin’s BTC Price Stay Above USD 27000 Over the Weekend?

As the Asian trading day begins with a minor rise in Bitcoin and a fall in Ether, experts predict a pre-FOMC market correction, underscoring the resilience of digital assets amid US regulatory and debt challenges.

The decline in the put/get in touch with a ratio of bitcoin options suggests that crypto investors are less concerned than in June when U.S. lawmakers clashed over raising the country’s debt ceiling.

Bitcoin and Ether Continue to Thrive

Joe DiPasquale of BitBull Capital says the theme this week will be correction and consolidation before the next FOMC meeting minutes are released on June 14th.

“We expected a correction and consolidation between the $25,000 and $27,000 levels, and that is what we have witnessed over the last month,” he told CoinDesk in a note. “While we haven’t had a major test of $30K, another attempt at the key resistance level would not be surprising.”

Mark Connors, head of research at digital asset manager 3iQ, notes that it’s impressive that the digital asset market continues to thrive despite the hostile regulatory environment in the U.S. This is all thanks to a market that remains concerned about unprecedented debt issuance. within the U.S.

“With equity and debt markets wondering how much the U.S. Treasury’s renewed debt issuance will affect liquidity and thus market prices, digital assets are taking matters into their own hands,” he wrote to CoinDesk.

Connors writes that despite the 2023 focus on increasing Bitcoin dominance and rising fees amid a challenging regulatory environment in the U.S., Ethereum’s post-merger performance, including an unexpected non-impact of staking ‘unlocking,’ increased demand for staking and a deflationary promise fulfilled with over 250k ETH ‘burned,’ is attracting market attention.

“So while the fate of the $500 trillion equity and debt markets depends on the ability of central banks and treasury departments to provide much-needed liquidity, pioneering digital assets bitcoin and ether are taking care of business, and the market is responding, even if institutions and regulators are not,” he told CoinDesk.

Bitcoin’s Place Get in Touch with Ratio Declines After Recent Debt Deal

Derivatives data show a recent decline in a metric that tends to rise as bearish sentiment increases. The bitcoin options set/phone ratio on the exchanges is currently, 47, down from 1.34 at the beginning of June.

The buyer of a place option has acquired the right to sell the asset at a given price, while the buyer of a simply call option acquires the right to buy the asset. The relationship between the two can indicate investor sentiment, particularly when they rise or fall to extreme levels.

Put and call option volume is measured over the past 24 hours, with levels above one indicating bearishness and levels below one implying the opposite.

The recent drop indicates that fewer traders are looking to buy downside protection against future price declines. The increase in protection toward the end of the previous month was likely related to concerns about the debt deal recently agreed to by Democrats and Republicans.

Bitcoin (BTC) was rising slightly above $27 000 after the U.S. added 339 000 in May, which exceeded economists’ expectations. Coinbase’s head of institutional research, David Duong, shared his crypto market analysis.

By Marina Meza

The Rapid Growth of DeFi-focused Ethereum Liquid Staking Derivatives Platforms is Impressive

Marina Meza
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<strong>The Rapid Growth of DeFi-focused Ethereum Liquid Staking Derivatives Platforms is Impressive</strong>

Ether ETH DeFi activity has slowed in the bear market and the sector faces increased competition from Ethereum’s 4% annual staking reward, according to Glassnode analysts. However, a DeFi narrative is building around liquid staking derivative (LSD) tokens that could revive Ethereum network activity.

According to a recent Glassnode report, the percentage of gas consumed by DeFi protocols has fallen from 34% in 2020 to 8% to 16% today, with NFTs hogging the top 25% to 30% share; this is shown in a graphic published by glassnode. Glassnode’s bid-weighted price index for DeFi, priced in USD and ETH, recorded a 90% loss since early 2021.

DeFi’s Blue-Chips

DeFi’s so-called “Blue-Chips”, representing a basket of well-known DeFi protocol governance tokens such as Uniswap UNI, MakerDAO MKR, Aave AAVE, Compound COMP, Balancer (BAL) and SushiSwap SUSHI, have lost 88% of their market capitalization since the all-time highs of USD 45 billion in May 2021.

DeFi blue chip tokens have underperformed ETH during bullish market rallies and have experienced a more severe drop than ETH “on the downside during bearish ones.” Various analysts predict that since ETH staking now yields 4%, it will act as a “new hurdle rate over which token yields should jump.” This yield represents the benchmark rate for Ether investors.

Currently, major lending protocols such as Aave and Compound offer between 2 and 3% yields on stablecoins and ether lending. In addition, DeFi protocols such as Aave and Compound also carry smart contract risk that is eliminated with proof-of-stake (PoS) validators.

Staking has become popular among Ethereum investors, especially after the Shapella update in April 2023, which enabled staking contract refunds.

By the end of May, Ethereum users had staked 21.63 million ETH worth USD 40.021 million, representing 18% of Ethereum’s total supply.

Liquid staking derivative platforms such as Lido and Rocket Pool account for one-third of this massive market. These applications offer tokenized representation of locked-in ETH, allowing investors to access staking returns without compromising liquidity.

A growing trend among Ethereum investors is to interact with LSD-fi or LSD financialization, which aims to put the liquidity offered by LSD tokens at the service of DeFi applications.

Is LSD-fi the Solution?

Essentially, LSDfi leverages the liquidity of LSD tokens in DeFi-like lending protocols and liquidity on exchanges for higher returns. Given that a considerable amount of ETH is staked with LSD platforms, LSDfi has the potential to revive DeFi activity.

A Dune analytics dashboard produced by data analyst Defimochi shows that the total value locked (TVL) in LSDfi protocols has reached USD 411 million, increasing exponentially since mid-May. Some of the most popular names in the sector include Pendle Finance, Lybra Finance, Curve Finance and Alchemix Protocol.

Liquidity of LSD tokens on Curve Finance, the market’s stablecoin exchange, has exceeded USD 1.5 billion. Curve has also enabled the minting of its overcollateralized stablecoin crvUSD using Frax Protocol’s sfrxETH token as collateral.

Relatively new protocols such as Lybra Finance and Pendle Finance, which seek to leverage the liquidity provided by LSD tokens, have also become popular.

As has happened before with DeFi, new applications are likely to leverage the liquidity of LSD tokens by facilitating the extraction of liquidity from their governance tokens for early depositors.

While they may bring decent returns for some users, these protocols could carry smart contract risks and the possibility of falling victim to a rug pull, introducing the risks that come with the higher returns provided by LSDfi.

By Marina Meza

Crypto Summary: “Privacy Tokens to be Removed from Binance in Europe”

Audy Castañeda
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<strong>Crypto Summary: “Privacy Tokens to be Removed from Binance in Europe”</strong>

The five top news of the week in the field of cryptocurrencies are presented.

The five most outstanding news of the week are summarized below:

  • Privacy tokens will be removed from Binance in Europe.
  • Central Bank of Georgia will investigate crypto companies.
  • Jimbos Protocol is offering a public reward of $800,000 to recover the stolen funds.
  • Russia warns about the risks of saving in Bitcoin.
  • Does Binance plan to lay off 20% of its employees?

Privacy Tokens to be removed from Binance in Europe

Starting June 26, privacy tokens will no longer be available to Binance clients in France, Italy, Poland, and Spain. This removal of Binance privacy tokens is a direct response to the stricter regulations in Europe regarding cryptocurrency and financial privacy.

A Binance spokesperson said that the affected tokens include: Decred (DCR), Dash (DASH), Zcash (ZEC), Horizen (ZEN), PIVX (PIVX), Navcoin (NAV), Secret (SCRT), Verge (XVG), Firo (FIRO), BEAM (BEAM), Monero (XMR) and MobileCoin (MOB).

Central Bank of Georgia to Investigate Crypto Companies

The Central Bank of Georgia has announced that it will investigate crypto companies in the country to assess their level of risk and protect consumers and the financial system in general. The investigation will focus on companies that offer cryptocurrency-related services, such as exchanges and wallets.

The Central Bank of Georgia has also committed to working closely with other government agencies and regulators to ensure that the crypto market in the country is safe and fair for all users.

Jimbos Protocol Offers $800,000 Public Reward to Recover Stolen Funds

Decentralized finance platform Jimbos Protocol has offered an $800,000 reward to the public after its hacker ignored a deal to return stolen funds.

Jimbos Protocol’s $800,000 public reward offer is an attempt to recover the stolen funds and encourage anyone with relevant information to come forward. The move is also a sign of the growing importance of security and transparency in the crypto space, and the role that bounties can play in protecting the market against cybercrime.

Russia Warns of Risks of Saving in Bitcoin

During his participation in the conference “Future Finance: Challenges and Opportunities” the head of the Financial Policy Department of the Russian Ministry of Finance, Ivan Chebeskov, warned the citizens of that country not to resort to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies after he acknowledge that there has been a significant decrease in the volume of savings stored in foreign fiat currencies.

Does Binance Plan to Lay Off 20% of Its Employees?

Binance has announced plans to lay off around 20% of its workforce. The move comes amid an increasingly volatile cryptocurrency market and heightened regulatory pressure around the world. Specifically, it is reassessing its talent base following an external report.

The layoffs at Binance will affect employees around the world and are expected to focus on areas such as customer service and regulatory compliance.

The move is a reminder of the importance of adaptability in the crypto industry and the need to adjust to changing market conditions and government regulations.

By Audy Castaneda

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