Crypto Weekly Roundup: Nomad Hacked, Solana W…

It is been a hectic week that saw a handful of multi-million hacks and one of Bitcoin’s biggest evangelists step down from his post. Also, crypto regulations in the US have gone up another notch. Let’s take a look.

Bitcoin

Michael Saylor, who was serving as the CEO of business intelligence company MicroStrategy, has shifted to the role of Chairman after serving 30 years at the helm.

Ethereum

As the ethereum inspired rally continues, the image of the long-dreamt of flippening is beginning to be talked about again. The eth merger is also just on the horizon, and should it go well and the sell-the-news event done with, why shouldn’t a newly high-powered ethereum overtake bitcoin in market cap?

Coinbase announced in a blog post published on Monday that Coinbase Prime was adding Ethereum to its growing list of staking options for US domestic institutional clients.

DeFi

The cross-chain token bridge Nomad suffered an exploit on Monday, August 1, with attackers draining the protocol of nearly all its funds. The total value of cryptocurrencies lost to the attack has totaled nearly $200 million. Nomad has announced that it has recovered $22 million. Data from Etherscan showed that Nomad had recovered around $22.4 million (11.4%) of the $190 million that was drained during the hack after the team announced a reward.

Post the attacks on Solana, Near Protocol has issued an official disclosure of details into a similar issue, which it claimed was addressed and resolved earlier in June.

Altcoins

News has emerged that several hackers have targeted the Solana ecosystem, and losses are nearing the billion-dollar mark. The multimillion-dollar Solana Wallet hack has been traced back to a private key exploit tied to the Slope mobile wallet app.

Technology

Web3 platform Alchemy has marked its entry into the Polkadot ecosystem, announcing a critical partnership with Astar Network, a parachain of the Polkadot network. Once the deal is finalized and implemented, Astar can utilize Alchemy’s node infrastructure.

Business

The ZB cryptocurrency exchange advertises itself as one of the most secure exchanges in the crypto space. However, despite robust security measures in place, the exchange has become the latest entity in the crypto space to fall victim to the ongoing spate of hackings. According to the latest details available from PeckShield, the exchange has lost around $4.8 million in a coordinated attack.

Fashion brand Gucci has announced that it is adding ApeCoin to its list of accepted cryptocurrencies.

Beleaguered crypto lender Voyager Digital has been cleared to return some of the customer funds locked up at the Metropolitan Commercial Bank (MCB) by the judge presiding over the company’s bankruptcy proceedings underway in New York. The ruling clears the path for Voyager Digital to return around $270 million of frozen customer funds.

Regulations

According to a staffer from the office of United States Senator Cynthia Lummis, every exchange in the country, as well as Binance, is reportedly being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Japan’s central bank has put its CBDC pilot on hold, claiming that it requires further exploration and understanding of the market.

NFT

CEO Zuckerberg announced that Meta is expanding its NFT support for Instagram across international borders to reach users in over 100 countries.

Jewelry brand Tiffany & Co. has unveiled its collection of diamond-encrusted and NFT-backed CryptoPunk pendants.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.