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CoinCodeCap Weekly brings you an entire week’s news in one article. Got no time to stay updated during weekdays? No worries, we got your covered!
Table of Contents
12th December 2021
The number of forged wallet scams increases as centralized exchanges ban China. In addition, as the popularity of DEX platforms has grown, so has the number of DEX scams. Many Chinese investors lost money due to scammers forging faux Metamask wallets. In December, the People’s Bank of China, the Ministry of Information, and other financial watchdogs issued a combined notice prohibiting banks from conducting bitcoin-related transactions.
Bug Found Gelato’s Contract might have led to significant losses. Gelato was notified about a bug by samczsun. Gelato immediately tweeted about it and started working on the same. PeckShield Inc. noticed a bug in GUniRouter02, which can be exploited to transfer funds from unknowing users who have previously approved GUniRouter02 for spending.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal Twitter account was “briefly compromised”. The account has been restored, and the malicious tweets have been removed. Tweets put out from PM Modi’s @narendramodi account read, “India has officially accepted bitcoin as legal tender. The government has officially bought 500 BTC and distributing them to all residents of the country.” The post also included a link urging unsuspecting investors to sign up and claim their BTC share.
AscendEX was hacked. The hot wallet was compromised and the hacker got away with ~$80 million. AscendEX’s internal security audit Report identified that a number of ERC-20, BSC, and Polygon tokens were transferred out of the exchange’s hot wallets. The estimated loss of AscendEX_Global was $77.7M in total ($60M on ethereum, $9.2M on BinanceChain, and $8.5M on 0xPolygon).
13th December 2021
WikiLeaks receives crypto donations worth over $2M. The organization has received donations in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, ZCash, Monero, and Ethereum. The Bitcoin address has received 30.45 BTC. The Litecoin address has received a total of 163.07 LTC. The Ethereum address has received a total of 145.45 ETH.
90% of total bitcoin mined has been mined, according to data from the Clark Moody Bitcoin Dashboard. As the financial network grows, fueling the increased demand for BTC, a sudden and severe supply shock may become unavoidable.
NFT market Vulcan Forged was hacked and over 4.5 million PYR was stolen. The hacker was able to access a user’s wallet because he had obtained the right to use the personal essentials. 148 wallets holding PYR have been compromised. Over 4.5m PYR had been stolen.
Tether becomes the official currency of Myanmar’s Shadow Government for ‘domestic use.’ The group is also using a direct lending mechanism to raise funding. In a Facebook post on Sunday, NUG Finance Minister Tin Tun Naing said that the government now accepts Tether, a cryptocurrency designed to act as a dollar substitute, for “domestic usage to make it easy and speed up the present commerce, services, and payment systems.”
Swissquote planning to launch a cryptocurrency exchange. One of Swissquote’s goals is to create its trading platform. If Swissquote’s crypto exchange goes live as expected, the number of trading platforms for digital assets in Switzerland will skyrocket.
An NFT worth $300k was unintentionally sold for just over $3K (£2,270), less than one-hundredth of its market price. Maxnaut, the seller, informed CNet that he had intended to sell Bored Ape number 3,547 for 75 ethereum (ETH), the cryptocurrency used in many NFT exchanges. However, during one of the many trades he lists publicly every day, a “lapse of concentration” led him to write in “0.75 ETH” ($2,989) instead.
14th December 2021
Gwyneth Paltrow invests in green bitcoin miner TeraWulf. TeraWulf is a startup that intends to create Bitcoin using renewable energy, answering concerns about the cryptocurrency’s high electricity use. With her investment in a green Bitcoin mining startup TeraWulf, Paltrow is thinking about another important issue for the crypto industry: environmental sustainability. TeraWulf is alerting the S.E.C. today to conclude a reverse merger with Ikonics.
Co-Founder of Twitch launches gaming NFT on Solana. The platform will function as both a primary and secondary marketplace, allowing players to purchase non-fungible tokens from game businesses. Gaming studios have already partnered with the company, and fresh NFTs will be released in the following weeks.
Brinc Finance was hacked on December 14, 2021. The hacker was able to sell $1.1M DAI, 14.31M BRC & 3.2M gBRC. The root creator address made a gnosis safe wallet tx at gnosisSafe and ethereum. Brinc Finance has located the wallet of the attacker at etherscan and has flagged it as “Heist”.
Nike Inc. has released the latest digital shoe. Joining the NIKE, Inc. family are the foremost developers of virtual footwear, collectables, and experiences born in the metaverse. NIKE’s digital transformation will be hastened as a result of this acquisition.
Thailand intends to publish detailed rules for digital assets in order to reduce risks to the financial system and provide greater investor protection as more people become interested in cryptocurrencies. In January 2022, the Bank of Thailand intends to release a consultation paper on the “Financial Landscape.” The report will seek agreement on what it refers to as “red lines” for cryptocurrency users and businesses.
Elon Musk announced on Tuesday that the electric carmaker Tesla will welcome dogecoin, a meme-based digital currency, for merchandise. This year, the cryptocurrency market has experienced significant volatility, typically in response to Musk’s tweets. His opinions on dogecoin have fueled a meteoric rise in the value of the cryptocurrency this year. Dogecoin’s price has risen by 19.5% in one day since the news emerged.
The Stellar Development Foundation announced today that an electronic version of the hryvnia, Ukraine’s national currency, will be piloted using the Stellar blockchain. The pilot, which is being run by Bitt and TASCOMBANK, will be overseen by the country’s central bank, with the Ministry of Digital Transformation’s support.
15th December 2021
On Tuesday, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency websites went haywire. CoinMarketCap website bug resulted in eye-popping figures for prices, market capitalizations, and more. The bug was active for about an hour and was resolved. Bitcoin Price touched $779 Billion due to the bug.
The Cryptocurrency Bill, which the government had listed as one of the agenda items for the Parliament’s Winter Session, may not be tabled during the current session. According to a senior government official, the government is considering changes to the proposed cryptocurrency framework.
Cryptocurrency ads were banned due to a ‘red alert’ focus on consumer awareness of the “complex and volatile” products. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has declared that monitoring crypto assets, such as Bitcoin, are a “red-alert priority.”
Circle’s USDC goes live on Avalanche to assist the DeFi ecosystem. Avalanche customers can use USDC to deposit, withdraw, send and receive payments, and settle transactions. Circle’s developer APIs, modified to support USDC on Avalanche, are also available to developers.
16th December 2021
A company loses $1.6 million after a Beijing court rules that Bitcoin mining contracts are “invalid.” The Chaoyang District People’s Court in Beijing has cancelled Bitcoin mining contracts signed in 2019, resulting in a $1.6 million loss for the plaintiff. A Beijing court dismissed the complaint on December 15, which stated that the contract between the two parties was “invalid in the first instance.”
Reddit has filed for an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing comes as IPOs in the United States reached new highs in 2021, propelled by abundant liquidity due to accommodating monetary policies. Some of the startups that have gone public in the United States this year include Robinhood Markets Inc, Coupang Inc, and Coinbase Global.
Wirex gives Ukrainians access to over 20 cryptocurrencies, promises crypto cards. Crypto users in Ukrainian residents will be given two cards that will allow them to spend their digital currencies in stores and online. The company accepts over 20 cryptocurrencies, including major coins like BTC and ETH and popular altcoins like DOGE. Ukrainians will be given a virtual card linked to Apple Pay and Google Pay.
The Federal Reserve to reduce its bond-buying program and expects to hike interest rates three times next year. Despite the threats posed by the epidemic, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the US economy is growing at a “robust pace,” and he believes corporate and consumer spending will continue strong.
17th December 2021
Circle partners with EnDAOment to launch a disaster assistance fund based on USDC to assist communities affected by the tragic storms that struck last weekend. Donations of $20 or more can be made using USD Coin (USDC) or other cryptocurrencies via connected crypto wallets from the fund page. A credit or debit card can be used to donate fiat currency in any denomination.
According to Chainalysis, crypto fraudsters made a near-record $7.7 billion in revenue in 2021. A relatively new scam known as “rug pulls” was responsible for the 81% increase in earnings. When developers abruptly depart their cryptocurrency projects and take their users’ funds with them, this is known as a rug pull.
Internal conflict about cryptocurrency at RBI’s secret meeting. The Board assessed the country’s present internal and global financial situation and emerging concerns and potential solutions. “Sources revealed that the proposed ‘Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021’ is not on the agenda of the Union Cabinet meeting on December 15.”
Fixed-term deposits are now available on Hodlnaut. Hodlnaut has launched the Fixed Term Deposit product, a new way to earn interest on crypto for retail investors. The Fixed Term Deposit, unlike Hodlnaut’s present open term deposit, will allow retail customers to earn the best interest rates available. This product was launched to assist users in earning high-interest rates and growing their cryptocurrency holdings while using Hodlnaut.
18th December 2021
Kraken to build an NFT platform. Kraken would assist in moving some NFT activities “off-chain” to reduce minting and transaction fees to a minimum. These exchanges’ NFT trading volumes aren’t publicly available because APIs aren’t currently available. However, trade volumes on different NFT markets increased dramatically in August. According to The Block’s Data Dashboard, OpenSea is still the market leader.
World’s first “Merry Christmas” message to go on sale in an auction by Vodaphone. More than $2 lakh is expected to be raised at the auction. Those who place a bid on the SMS at the auction will be required to pay in Ethereum. Vodafone has stated that it will donate all proceeds from the auction to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, to assist the 82.4 million migrants who have left for various reasons.
Adidas Originals has put a halt to its NFT mint collaboration. Adidas Originals had sold 9,255 of the 30,000 available NFTs before the outage, giving them 1,851 ETH (about $7.2 million). The corporation will have made almost $23 million when the mint closes.
