Autor Cointelegraph By Felix Ng

Cointelegraph is committed to providing independent, high-quality journalism across the crypto, blockchain, AI, and fintech industries.All news, reviews, and analyses are produced with full journalistic independence and integrity. For more details on our standards and processes, please read our Editorial Policy.

Allbridge, the company behind cross-chain stablecoin bridge Allbridge Core, said it has paused the protocol as a precaution after a “security incident” that reportedly saw $1.65 million drained on Sunday.The incident affected Allbridge Core’s Solana deployment, with the attacker having already bridged the stolen funds from Solana to Ethereum before moving them into privacy pools. “Allbridge Core is experiencing a security incident,” it said in a post on X on Sunday. “We have paused the protocol as a precaution while we investigate. If you have liquidity in affected pools, please withdraw now.” The Allbridge Core exploit is at least the sixth attack targeting a cross-chain bridge since May. Bridges are attractive targets for attackers because they often hold large pools of funds that back bridged assets on the destination blockchain. Source: LookonchainOnchain Lens reported the attacker made a $1.12 million USDC (USDC) flash loan from Kamino, before rapid USDC/USDT swaps that distorted the Allbridge Core stablecoin pool’s exchange rate. Related: Taiko reopens bridge after $1.7M exploit, says users made whole The attacker then withdrew liquidity at manipulated rates, repaying the $1.12 million USDC loan and keeping the difference. “The resulting pool imbalance created a temporary positive arbitrage window. If you took advantage of it, please consider returning funds… this will go directly toward compensating affected LPs,” it added.This wasn’t the first time Allbridge Core was hit by a flash loan attack. In April 2023, Allbridge was exploited for $573,000 through a flash loan attack on Allbridge’s pool on the BNB Chain. The attacker acted as both liquidity provider and swapper, and exploited a flaw in a smart contract that allowed them to manipulate swap prices, which led to $289,900 drained in Binance USD (BUSD) and $290,900 in USDt (USDT). Warning posted to the Allbridge Core website. Source: Allbridge CoreCross-chain bridges targeted since May In June, Taiko, an Ethereum layer-2 blockchain, urged its users to withdraw assets from the network’s bridges after attackers exploited one of its bridge protocols and stole $1.7 million. Taiko reopened its bridge 11 days later after completing a four-step recovery plan. Weeks before the Taiko incident, Secret Network was exploited through an “infinite mint” bug on a vulnerable smart contract, which created unbacked versions of Axelar-wrapped assets, resulting in a $4.67 million exploit.  Other recent bridge exploits included the Gravity Bridge, Verus Bridge and the Butter Network. Magazine: The British Virgin Islands are a top crypto hub no one ever talks about: Here’s why

Cointelegraph is committed to providing independent, high-quality journalism across the crypto, blockchain, AI, and fintech industries.All news, reviews, and analyses are produced with full journalistic independence and integrity. For more details on our standards and processes, please read our Editorial Policy.

South Korea’s financial authorities investigated more than 40 cases of unfair trading, including market manipulation and fraudulent crypto trading, in the last two years. According to an X post by Financial Services Commission Chair Lee Eog-won, 30 of them reported or referred to investigative agencies, identifying 25 suspects since the Virtual Asset User Protection Act took effect in July 2024.Lee said the average unlawful gains were around 1.4 billion Korean won ($940,000).“Today marks the second anniversary of the enactment of the ‘Virtual Asset User Protection Act…’ It was a meaningful time that brought the virtual asset market, which was outside the institutional framework at the time, into the fold of the law and created an opportunity to establish a user protection system for virtual assets,” said Lee. Related: South Korea to bring digital assets under new state asset management systemThe Virtual Asset User Protection Act is designed to protect users who buy and store crypto assets with virtual asset service providers. VASPs are legally required to separate user deposits and virtual assets from their own corporate holdings, holding client deposits in banks. The legislation also targets illicit activities such as insider trading, wash trading and market manipulation, enhancing the Financial Services Commission (FSC) authority to supervise and inspect VASPs. “We will continue to enhance market surveillance investigation and monitoring systems based on AI, and proactively respond to high-risk areas,” Lee added. Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Bitcoin Ordinals advocate Leonidas has proposed developing a new open-source Bitcoin client, aimed at removing restrictions affecting Runes and Ordinals transactions. In a post to X on Friday, Leonidas called the proposed client “Bitcoin $DOG Mode,” which would lift the maximum individual transaction size to 3.9 million weight units (WU), compared to Bitcoin Core’s 400,000 WU, and lower the dust limit to 1 satoshi (sats) from 294-546 sats.The changes would make it easier to send Ordinals inscriptions and Runes, which have been described as Bitcoin’s take on fungible and non-fungible tokens. Both have been controversial within the Bitcoin community, with critics arguing they amount to “spam” on the Bitcoin network. “Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots have spent years enforcing rules that Bitcoin itself does not have,” Leonidas said in a statement. “The $DOG Army is done asking for permission. It is time to remove even more of these frivolous restrictions.”Source: LeonidasIncreasing the maximum transaction size would make it easier for Ordinals users to place much larger files or collections into one transaction, even ones that take up nearly an entire block. Meanwhile, the dust limit is a rule on the Bitcoin network defining the smallest transaction amount, or UTXO, that can be economically sent. Lowering the dust limit would stop users from having to “pad” outputs to get their transaction broadcast on default Bitcoin Core nodes.Related: Bitcoin bulls Michael Saylor, Adam Back slam BIP-110 Ordinals proposalBitcoin $DOG Mode would be an alternative to Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots, the two most widely used Bitcoin clients.Leonidas said the goal is to attract enough users to the new client that Bitcoin Core would eventually have to loosen its own policy restrictions.Magazine: Bitcoin nearing late stages of bear market: Jamie Coutts, Real VisionCointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.