Autor Cointelegraph By Tom Mitchelhill

Crypto owners banned from working on US Government crypto policies

Crypto owners banned from working on US Government crypto policies

Uverejnil používateľ | júl 7, 2022 |

US government officials who privately own cryptocurrencies are now banned from working on regulations and policies that could affect the value of digital assets.A new advisory notice released by the US Office of Government Ethics (OGE) on Tuesday stated that the de minimis exemption — which allows for the owners of securities who hold an amount below a certain threshold to work on policy related to that security — is universally inapplicable when it comes to cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. “As a result, an employee who holds any amount of a cryptocurrency or stablecoin may not participate in a particular matter if the employee knows that particular matter could have a direct and predictable effect on the value of their cryptocurrency or stablecoins.”The notice provided an example scenario whereby an employee who owns a mere $100 of a certain stablecoin, is asked to work on stablecoin regulation — the employee in question cannot participate in work concerning regulation “until and unless they divest their interests in [that] stablecoin.” The notice specified that this ruling still applies even if the cryptocurrency or stablecoin in question were to ever “constitute [a security] for purposes of the federal or state securities laws.”The new ruling applies universally to all federal government employees including The White House, The Federal Reserve and The Department of the Treasury. The term “de minimis” comes from a longer Latin phrase, meaning: “the law does not concern itself with trifles.” Related: Self-regulatory organizations growing alongside new US crypto regulationThe only exemption from the OGE’s crackdown on crypto ownership is that policy makers are allowed to hold up to $50,000 in mutual funds that invest broadly in companies that would benefit from crypto and blockchain technology. The reasoning for this exemption is because they “are considered diversified funds.”Despite the seemingly harsh rules concerning employee investment in the crypto sector, the United States continues to move forward in integrating the cryptocurrency industry, with the US president Joe Biden announcing a “whole-of-government” approach to regulation concerning the digital asset sector. According to Raymond Shu, the co-founder and CEO of Cabital, recent legislative proposals could make the U.S. one the only Western countries to fully regulate and accept stablecoins and other digital assets as official parts of the financial system.

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MakerDAO members shoot down proposal for more centralization

MakerDAO members shoot down proposal for more centralization

Uverejnil používateľ | júl 1, 2022 |

In a major win for decentralization, members of MakerDAO, the lending protocol behind the Dai (DAI) stablecoin, have rejected a series of proposals that would have seen the protocol’s governance structure become more centralized. On June 27, the members of MakerDAO (MKR) showed up to consider three proposals that would have reorganized the leadership of the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) into something that more closely resembles a traditional corporation, complete with a board of directors.The proposals were drafted as potential solutions for making the DAO more efficient and more capable of executing “high-level decisions.” Author of one of the proposals and member of the MakerDAO Protocol Engineering Core Unit, Sam McPherson voiced his frustration about the current governance model, tweeting:“The status quo is not working… The DAO is not currently set up to make high-level decisions which is leading to decision paralysis or less informed parties making sub-optimal calls.” The first proposal, called LOVE-001, suggested creating a new “oversight Core Unit.” Essentially this proposal would have established a new unit that would “periodically audit the activity of other Core Units” — a technical way of saying that a more centralized authority would be capable of exerting additional control over decisions concerning new collateral. Over 60% of the 293,911 MKR delegated governance tokens were used to vote against the LOVE-001 proposal.According to MakerDAO’s GitHub, the second proposal called “Makershire Hathaway” would create a 10-million-dollar special purpose fund designed to earn yield from the protocol’s stablecoin reserves. Makershire Hathaway was rejected by 65% of voters.The third proposal, known only as MIP75c3-SP1, suggested the establishment of a discretionary fund that would be overseen by a new “Growth Task Force” that would aim to grow Maker “as fast as possible.” This proposal received the most unilateral rejection, with just over 76% of MKR tokens used to vote against it. The three proposals appeared to have stirred the pot, with MakerDAO noting that they witnessed the largest amount of governance voting activity to date. Average number of unique poll voters per month also hit an all-time high!57 is the new record. Previous record was 38.4/ pic.twitter.com/aQqJWYmgHd— Maker (@MakerDAO) June 26, 2022The rejection of these proposals combined with the historic voter turnout indicates that MakerDAO members may strongly prefer a properly decentralized model of governance, setting a strong precedent for other decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. MakerDAO is the governing body of the Maker protocol, which issues U.S. dollar-pegged DAI stablecoins in exchange for user deposits of Ether (ETH), Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) and nearly 30 other cryptocurrencies.Related: Less than 1% of all holders have 90% of the voting power in DAOs: ReportMakerDAO took another major step this month, with the protocol signaling its intent to invest a portion of its dormant stablecoin reserves into traditional financial assets. Earlier this month, as fears of DeFi contagion spread, MakerDao voted to cut off lending platform Aave’s ability to generate Dai for its lending pool without collateral.Despite the series of crucial developments for the DeFi protocol, Maker’s governance token MKR is down roughly 10% over the past week, currently trading for $880 according to Cointelegraph Price Index.

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Infamous North Korean hacker group identified as suspect for $100M Harmony attack

Infamous North Korean hacker group identified as suspect for $100M Harmony attack

Uverejnil používateľ | jún 30, 2022 |

The Lazarus Group, a well-known North Korean hacking syndicate, has been identified as the primary suspect in the recent attack that saw $100 million stolen from the Harmony protocol. According to a new report published today by blockchain analysis firm Elliptic, the manner in which Harmony’s Horizon Bridge was hacked and the way stolen digital assets were consequently laundered bears a striking resemblance to other Lazarus Group attacks.“There are strong indications that North Korea’s Lazarus Group may be responsible for this theft, based on the nature of the hack and the subsequent laundering of the stolen funds.”Additionally, Elliptic outlined exactly how the heist was executed, noting that The Lazarus Group targeted the login credentials of Harmony employees in the Asia Pacific region to breach the protocol’s security system. After gaining control of the protocol, the hackers deployed automated laundering programs that moved the stolen assets late at night.Elliptic also noted that the hackers have already transferred over 40% of the $100 million to Tornado Mixer, an Ethereum-based “mixing service” that obscures transaction data and makes it extremely difficult for investigators to trace the movement of funds.Initially, the Harmony team offered up a $1 million bounty as an incentive for the hackers to return the funds. However, on June 29, Harmony upped the bounty to $10 million, and claimed that a full return of funds would cease the investigation and no further criminal charges would be pursued. The $600 million Ronin bridge hack, which occurred in April, has also been linked back to The Lazarus Group. Due to current market conditions, the value of the stolen Ether (ETH) has plummeted more than 60% down to $230 million.A recent report from Coinclub.com indicates that North Korea has deployed 7,000 full-time hackers to raise funds through cyberattacks, ransomware and crypto protocol hacks. North Korea is the world leader in cryptocurrency-related crime, with over 15 documented instances of cyber theft amounting to roughly $1.59 billion in stolen funds.Related: Harmony hacker sends stolen funds to Tornado Cash mixerHarmony’s Horizon Bridge is the latest addition to a growing list of token bridges that have been attacked, including Meter, Wormhole and Ronin, bringing the total amount of bridge token-related theft to a little over $1 billion in 2022 alone.The largest token bridge to be hacked was Poly Network in 2021, which lost $610 million that was almost entirely returned.

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80,000 Bitcoin millionaires wiped out in the great crypto crash of 2022

80,000 Bitcoin millionaires wiped out in the great crypto crash of 2022

Uverejnil používateľ | jún 30, 2022 |

More than 80,000 Bitcoin (BTC) investors have had their millionaire status revoked due to the crypto market downturn, but lower prices mean the number of whole coiners is growing. Back on Nov. 12, just days after Bitcoin hit a new all-time high of around $69,000, a total of 108,886 BTC addresses reported a balance greater than $1 million, according to data from BitInfoCharts. Fast forward to the present day, with the price of Bitcoin struggling to hold above $20,000, a mere 26,284 addresses are reported to contain holdings valued at upward of $1 million, meaning that the number of paper millionaires has declined by more than 75% throughout the last nine months. The dramatic decline in the price of the flagship cryptocurrency has also impacted the number of whales — those who boast a Bitcoin wallet worth more than $10 million. While there were 10,587 addresses with a minimum cash value of $10 million in Nov. last year, just 4,342 hold the same status today, a decline of 58%. Despite the decline in the net worth of former BTC millionaires, the bear market has seen more than 13,000 new “wholecoiners” — a wallet that contains one or more BTC — added to the market, bringing the total number of wholecoiners to just over 860,000. This significant spike in the number of whole coiners would suggest that retail investors are accumulating large amounts of BTC while prices tank.Adding further credibility to the retail accumulation narrative, more than 250,000 addresses have added 0.1 BTC, or $2,000 at the time of writing, or more to their holdings over the past 20 days, according to data from Glassnode. Related: 71% of high net worth individuals have invested in digital assets: SurveyBitcoin and the rest of the digital asset market have been negatively impacted by a number of different issues, including increased regulatory scrutiny, sustained geopolitical unrest, rising inflation and interest rate hikes.Due to the increasing uncertainty around the stability of global markets, commentators seem to agree that the price of risk assets like Bitcoin could continue to suffer over a longer time frame. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is changing hands for $20,005, down 1.63% in the last 24 hours and 37% over the last 30 days, with a total market capitalization of $382 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

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Nexo hires Citibank to advise on acquisitions during market turmoil

Nexo hires Citibank to advise on acquisitions during market turmoil

Uverejnil používateľ | jún 23, 2022 |

Crypto lending platform Nexo, says that its strong balance sheet means it can ride to the rescue to provide liquidity during the current market turmoil by acquiring the assets of struggling crypto firms. In a blog post, Nexo announced that it is currently receiving advice from banking giant Citigroup on how best to acquire the assets of insolvent crypto firms so that investors can regain access to blocked funds. Last week Antoni Trenchev, co-founder and managing partner at Nexo, told Bloomberg that the current crypto crash reminds him of the Panic of 1907 — where major Wall St institutions were forced to bail out other struggling firms. “This reminds me, quite frankly, of the 1907 bank panic where JP Morgan was forced to step in with his own funds and then rally all those guys that were solvent to fix the situation.”In the blog post Nexo boasted that it had always run a sustainable business model that didn’t engage in risky lending practices, as a result it now occupies a position of “unmatched stability,” meaning that it is uniquely placed to step into the breach to help shore up struggling firms.“The crypto space is about to enter a phase of mass consolidation which has already begun with the remaining solvent players, like Nexo, expressing their readiness to acquire the assets of companies with solvency issues in order to supply immediate liquidity to their clients and relief to the entire industry.”The post revealed that Nexo has already made contact with a number of struggling crypto firms in private, offering up different ways to provide liquidity assistance. On June 13, Nexo publicly announced that it was prepared to acquire some of Celsius’ outstanding loans, following revelations that the fellow lending platform was suffering a major liquidity crisis. On the same day Nexo’s native token, NEXO plunged nearly 25%, falling to a new yearly low of $0.61 per token as fears of major DeFi contagion echoed through the market. Three days later, contagion fears were reignited as investment firm 3 Arrows Capital (3AC) failed to meet margin calls — suffering a loss of $400M in liquidations across multiple positions. Nexo says it doesn’t have any exposure to 3AC. Unlike many other embattled firms, Nexo has 100% liquidity to meet its $4.96 billion worth of debt obligations, according to U.S.-based audit firm Armanino. Related: Celsius’ crisis exposes problems of low liquidity in bear marketsSince the major drawdown on June 13, NEXO’s price has stabilised and is currently trading for $0.65, according to data from TradingView.

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