Autor Cointelegraph By Jesse Coghlan

NeoNexus founder pulls the plug on popular Metaverse NFT project

NeoNexus founder pulls the plug on popular Metaverse NFT project

Uverejnil používateľ | mar 22, 2022 |

The founder of NeoNexus, a Solana-based NFT project, has stated the team is no longer developing the project, blaming the drop in Solana (SOL) prices for the decision.The project’s founder, Jack Shi, took to the official Twitter account for NeoNexus, tweeting at 2 pm UTC on March 21 that it was no longer continuing the “healthy development” of the project, adding they would like to hand it over for the community to develop.It is with a heavy heart that we must inform you that we can no longer continue healthy development of the NEONEXUS project. We would like to hand over the project to our community, or a community-selected party for takeover if that’s feasible / possible.I’m deeply sorry,Jack— neonexus_world (@neonexus_world) March 21, 2022Estimates suggest that the project raised around 25,000 SOL for its NFT mints, which at today’s prices would be worth $2.2 million. With SOL prices climbing to over $150 around the time of the token mints, the project may have made an estimated $3.5 to $4.5 million.NeoNexus is a Metaverse project, featuring both a planned utility and governance coin, it had sold over 4,000 “property NFTs”, with the project planning to offer a further 6,000 property NFTs, and character, vehicle, and accessory tokens planned for the future. The project currently has over 13,000 members in its Discord channel.In a post on the project’s Discord, Shi wrote that the market conditions were to blame for the team halting development, with the project’s funds used to pay wages, tech infrastructure, business fees, and taxes.“It has been incredibly difficult trying to grow and continue our project in this ecosystem and market conditions where the price of SOL has dropped so much and the activity, volume, and interest in the entirety of the Solana NFT space has decreased.”Market conditions over the past few months have been choppy, with the price of SOL falling over 50% in 3 months according to data from CoinGecko. It hit a 90 day high of just over $200 in late December and since has steadily fallen to trade around the $80 mark.Shi added that over 20 staff members of the parent company, Unlock Defi, had been laid off as of the end of March, and asked if a community takeover was possible.Many commenters have accused the project of committing a “slow-rug”, building up the project only to exit, and take the funds months later.Damn that’s a huge slow rug— Keizer166 (@KeizerNFT) March 21, 2022

Related: DeFi ‘Godfather’ Cronje quits as TVL and tokens tank for related projectsPseudonymous crypto scam researcher and writer, “zachxbt”, shared screenshots of tweets Shi made in November, showing the founder sitting in a supercar and boasting of riding in a Lamborghini. Zachxbt used these images to question how the project could raise millions only to run out of funds in a few months.So this project raised $4m from multiple NFT drops and somehow runs out of the funds after just a few months?Here’s the founder flexing back in November. https://t.co/NzTyumRyuN pic.twitter.com/i7Y45VSAKD— zachxbt (@zachxbt) March 21, 2022

Various NFT projects advertised their own offerings when responding to the NeoNexus tweet in an attempt to relieve the losses some investors may have shouldered due to the announcement. Many offered whitelists for upcoming mints to those who responded with “NEONEXUS” on their respective Discord channels.At the time of writing, the websites for both the NeoNexus project and Unlock Defi were offline. Cointelegraph reached out to Shi and former employees for comment but did not immediately hear back.

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SBF opens Aussie Blockchain Week as govt says we’re 'open for business'

SBF opens Aussie Blockchain Week as govt says we’re 'open for business'

Uverejnil používateľ | mar 21, 2022 |

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried gave the opening keynote at this year’s Blockchain Week, with the events of day one held at the headquarters of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). Addressing the event remotely from the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried used his keynote to announce the launch of FTX Australia, localizing one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges by volume. FTX is the naming rights sponsor for the event.“This is something that has been in the works for a number of months, and it’s been a really high priority for us as a company.”Really excited to launch FTX: Australia!https://t.co/ZcBNEuyiG9https://t.co/jGumMSXMW3 https://t.co/rABSI5Y81O— SBF (@SBF_FTX) March 20, 2022According to Bankman-Fried, the launch in Australia is part of a larger move for the exchange to be licensed and regulated in as many countries as possible. He said that the world is “very much” looking for a regional hub in APAC for crypto, stating that other locations in the region “haven’t played out as expected”.“I think that has really left an opening for someplace to kind of grab that and service that region,” he added.Australia is looking to market itself as a crypto hub, with comments from the Federal Minister for Financial Services and the Digital Economy, Senator Jane Hume, stating that the country is “open for business” when it comes to cryptocurrencies.Giving her address at the conference, Hume said that the crypto ecosystem is the new frontier, adding: “If you want to be a pioneer on the virtual frontier of innovation, Australia is open for business. As the Minister for the digital economy and the Minister for financial services, I personally am backing you.”The comments echoed those of her colleague, Senator Andrew Bragg, who provided the opening address to the conference. Bragg used his speech to announce the proposal of legislation to reform regulations for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), de-banking, taxes, and licensing for crypto firms in Australia.Related: Australia’s plan to create a crypto competitive edge in 12 stepsComparing crypto to the internet boom in the late 1990s, Hume stated that the digital asset economy could add around 2.6% to Australia’s GDP and create around 200,000 new jobs by 2030, and warned that Australia could “miss out” if the incorrect regulatory framework is applied.“We want to encourage innovation in crypto assets, because innovation is what creates prosperity, it’s what creates jobs and economic growth.”“There are so many innovative use cases for crypto assets, many of which are now not at all far away from becoming mainstream,” she stated. According to the latest opinion poll, the current government is sitting a full 10 points behind the opposition on a two-party preferred basis. A looming federal election in May might jeopardize the plans of Senators Bragg and Hume, but a pro-crypto stance could be the governments’ strategy for re-election, swaying younger voters towards the coalition.Other speakers of note at day one of the five-day event Blockchain Week include Kris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com, Leigh Travers, CEO of Binance AU, Brooks Entwistle, SVP of Global Customer Success and Managing Director of APAC and MENA at Ripple, and Joseph Lubin, Co-founder of Ethereum.

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Rare Bears Discord phishing attack nabs $800K in NFTs

Rare Bears Discord phishing attack nabs $800K in NFTs

Uverejnil používateľ | mar 18, 2022 |

Recently launched NFT project, Rare Bears, was hit with an attack, after a hacker posted a phishing link in the project’s Discord channel, stealing nearly $800,000 in NFTs.Analysis from blockchain security firm Peckshield detailed that the attacker was able to steal 179 NFTs, including Rare Bears and other NFTs from various collections, including CloneX, Azuki, a “mfer” from artist sartoshi, and 6 LAND tokens used for The Sandbox metaverse.According to on-chain analysis, most of the NFTs were sold, netting the hacker 286 ETH, worth over $795,500, most of which was promptly put through Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer used to obfuscate the source of funds.A slate of similar phishing scams have occurred in recent months on Discord, suggesting some teams need to more carefully consider the security on admin accounts. Earlier today, the Rare Bears team posted that they had hired security consultant and auditor “Pandez” for a full security audit of its Discord.How the attack happenedAccording to an update posted by the Rare Bears team, the hacker gained access to the account of a Rare Bears Discord moderator known as “Zhodan”, posting an announcement within the group’s channel that a new mint of NFTs was taking place.It was a fake of course — a phishing link designed to steal funds from a users’ wallet. Warning @BearsRareDiscord has unfortunately been compromised. Please DO NOT click any links, connect your wallet and block all incoming DMs in our discord. Our team are working on the situation as we speak — Rare Bears (@BearsRare) March 17, 2022The update from the security audit found that the head of the project’s Discord account was compromised. The attacker, using the compromised account, then banned other members, or removed their roles from the server, thereby removing their ability to delete the posted phishing link.The attacker then invited a bot which locked all channels on the server, removing the ability for others to publicly communicate that the posts and links were fake.Rare Bears said the team was able to regain control of the server, removing the compromised account and transferring ownership to a new one, and that the server is secure from another attack.Related: NCA wants regulation for coin mixers, but the crypto industry is already one step aheadSpeaking to Cointelegraph, security consultant Pandez said that users should look out for a few key signs that could mean a message is a scam.“Almost no serious project will ever do a stealth mint,” Pandez said, “never click any links which appear like this.”Pandez said other red flags are if channels are locked during a “drop” of a new NFT collection, if the link differs to those shared on Twitter or other official sources for the project, and if the link is continuously posted in the channel.Past attacks of a similar nature have happened on Discord. In December, Solana NFT project Monkey Kingdom announced that hackers made off with $1.3 million of the community’s crypto funds after a security breach. Attackers there also posting a phishing link which drained users’ wallets.Last November, members of the Discord of popular NFT artist Beeple were also scammed, with attackers gaining access to a moderators account to post a phishing link, similarly draining user funds.

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‘Unlucky’: Agave and Hundred Finance DeFi protocols exploited for $11M

‘Unlucky’: Agave and Hundred Finance DeFi protocols exploited for $11M

Uverejnil používateľ | mar 16, 2022 |

A hacker has made off with approximately $11 million in Wrapped ETH, Wrapped BTC, Chainlink, USDC, Gnosis, and Wrapped XDAI after using a “re-entrancy” attack on DeFi lending protocol applications Agave and Hundred Finance.The attack comes within 24 hours of news breaking of the Deus Finance exploit, where hackers stole over $3 million in Dai and Ethereum from the lending contract platform.Agave’s token, AGVE, dropped by 20 per cent following the attack, according to data from CoinGecko. Hundred Finances’ token HND fell 3.5 per cent after it announced the exploit, however it’s since recovered to hit a 24-hour-high.“Agave is currently investigating an exploit on the agave finance protocol”, Agave tweeted on Tuesday 15th at 1:30pm UTC, “We will update you as soon as we know more.” It noted that the contracts have been paused until the situation is resolved.The Hundred Finance team also tweeted it was exploited on Gnosis chain, and has paused its markets whilst it pursued investigations.According to on-chain analysis, the address associated with the attacker has sent over 2,100 ETH, worth over $5.5 million, to a crypto mixer in an attempt to launder the stolen tokens.Related:Deus Finance exploit: Hackers get away with $3M worth of DAI and EtherSolidity developer and creator of an NFT liquidity protocol app, Shegen (@shegenerates) tweeted that she lost $225,000 in the exploit, and that her investigations revealed the attack worked by exploiting a wETH contract function on Gnosis Chain that allowed the attacker to continue borrowing crypto before the apps could calculate the debt, which would prevent further borrowing.The attacker ran this exploit, continually borrowing against the same collateral they were posting until the funds were drained from the protocols.Shegen told Cointelegraph that while the smart contract on Agave is essentially the same as Aave, which secures $18.4B, “every security researcher has audited it,” she said “so it’s reasonable to assume the contract is safe.”“I think this hack stands out more than some bigger ones,” Shegen said, noting that even if it’s a smaller hack compared to others that stole millions more, the similarity to Aave meant “it seems top tier safe, but wasn’t, and that break of trust hurts.”“It’s like you can’t even trust “safe” code.”Blockchain security researcher Mudit Gupta says the difference between Aave and Agave is that “Aave actively checks for re-entrancy before listing tokens on the main net to avoid similar attacks.”Shegen stated that she did not blame the Agave developers for failing to prevent the attack.“Agave was used in an unsafe way”, she said, “maybe the developer should not have allowed tokens with callbacks in them to be used in the platform, or added more re-entrancy guards.”“Curve, for example, was not hacked today, because it has extra re-entrancy guards, but I don’t really blame Luigy and the Agave team because it’s so unlikely that this would have happened, and slipped past many people.”Shegen also didn’t point the blame at Gnosis for creating tokens with a callback function which the hacker exploited, saying that the feature stops users from accidentally losing their crypto. “That’s actually a great feature for bridged tokens, it’s just a really unfortunate, and unlucky circumstance in my opinion.”

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Instagram is adding NFTs soon says Mark Zuckerberg

Instagram is adding NFTs soon says Mark Zuckerberg

Uverejnil používateľ | mar 16, 2022 |

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that its video and photo sharing app, Instagram, is preparing to add non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to the platform.“We’re working on bringing NFTs to Instagram in the near term,” Zuckerberg reportedly stated in an appearance at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas. The Facebook founder did not provide specifics on when the implementation would happen.Casey Newton, writer for the Platformer newsletter, tweeted from the conference that Zuckerberg also said that he hopes in the coming months, Instagram users would be able to mint their own NFTs on the platform.At #SXSW, Mark Zuckerberg just said that “hopefully” in the coming months you’ll be able to mint NFTs within Instagram— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) March 15, 2022Meta did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph on when NFT functionality would be live.Last October, Meta famously changed its name from Facebook to focus on its Metaverse related projects. Company reports from the last quarter of 2021 revealed for the first time the financial details of its virtual and augmented reality research and development business, Reality Labs, showing losses at over $10 billion. To be fair though, as Meta’s corner of the metaverse is not yet live, it’d be hard to turn a profit from it.This isn’t Meta’s first attempt at a crypto related project. In 2019 the company signaled plans to create “Libra” (later rebranded to “Diem”), a USD-pegged stablecoin which flunked due to a lack of regulatory approval and community pushback. The project was purchased by Silvergate Capital, although some ex-Meta employees are now looking to revive the open-source stablecoin through building a network of their own.Related: Vale Diem: How Facebook’s ambitious stablecoin project came to an endSocial media companies have been looking to implement cryptocurrencies and NFTs into their platforms following Twitter’s famous decision to add support for NFT profile pictures in January. Reddit implemented NFT avatars from its own collection, and adult site OnlyFans enabled NFT profile pictures in December 2020.It’s not only social media giants looking to get in on the action that crypto offers. Traditional finance companies are showing their interest in the space, with major credit card company, American Express, hinting at its expansion into the Metaverse according to trademark filings.Applications to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week showed American Express primed to offer virtual banking and exchange services, cryptocurrency services, and enabling the use of its credit cards at an NFT marketplace.

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