Welcome to our final recap of the major stories for the year! Here’s what has happened over the past week:
China launches NFT marketplace 🇨🇳
After declaring all cryptocurrency activities to be illegal last year, China announced the launch of its very own NFT marketplace on January 1st 2023.
China is set to bring state-backed NFT marketplace: All you need to knowhttps://t.co/GlBSiV5DVH pic.twitter.com/Nc8aMqHKmu
— Gadgets 360 (@Gadgets360) December 29, 2022
However, this marketplace will not be using any existing blockchains like Ethereum or Solana. Instead, the Chinese government has created its own blockchain, the China Cultural Heritage Chain’.
Although trading will still be in a controlled environment, it does hold some promise that China is loosening its grip on crypto activity in the country.
Avraham Eisenberg arrested 👮♀️
After outing himself as the Mango Markets ‘hacker’, Avraham Eisenberg declared that his actions were legal in his eyes.
I believe all of our actions were legal open market actions, using the protocol as designed, even if the development team did not fully anticipate all the consequences of setting parameters the way they are.
— Avraham Eisenberg (@avi_eisen) October 15, 2022
However, the authorities seemed to think otherwise, and he was arrested in Puerto Rico.
U.S. officials arrest and charge Mango attacker
— CryptoSlate (@CryptoSlate) December 28, 2022
Avraham Eisenberg has been charged with commodities fraud and manipulation.https://t.co/YXXoSeus91
Eisenberg manipulated the price of the MNGO token which resulted in $117 million worth of funds being stolen from the money market platform.
This hack has shown the risks of DeFi lending, and you can learn how safe it actually is in our article here.
Kraken shuts down Japan arm 🇯🇵
Despite Japan announcing its intention to liberalise crypto in the country,
Japan will make it easier for cryptocurrency exchanges to list tokens https://t.co/FFZfa4JDbG
— Bloomberg Crypto (@crypto) December 29, 2022
Kraken has announced that it will be shutting down its Japan arm.
#Crypto exchange #Kraken is shutting down in Japan citing current Japanese market conditions and a weak global crypto market. #cryptocurrency https://t.co/lSVg9HxKW7
— Bitcoin News (@BTCTN) December 29, 2022
As one of the larger crypto exchanges in the world, Kraken has decided to “deregister from the Financial Services Agency in Japan by Jan. 31, 2023”.
This comes at a time when Japan is lift the ban on foreign-issued stablecoins on crypto exchanges in the country, such as USDT and USDC.
Japan’s Financial Services Agency has started collecting feedback on proposals for lifting the stablecoin ban in the country. https://t.co/Bv8PVbV7ne
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) December 26, 2022
Winklevoss twins sued 📃
Investors are now suing Gemini over its Earn program, which earned its yield by troubled crypto lender Genesis Trading.
Investors sued @Gemini for offering interest-earning crypto through its Gemini Earn program, which was abruptly halted when its borrower Genesis Trading faced financial distress, court filings show. By @iamsandalihttps://t.co/xuvWalWdiO
— CoinDesk (@CoinDesk) December 28, 2022
Despite attempting to find a solution to the liquidity crisis,
Earn Update: Today, Houlihan Lokey presented a plan on behalf of the Creditor Committee to resolve the liquidity issues at Genesis and DCG and provide a path for the recovery of assets.
— Cameron Winklevoss (@cameron) December 20, 2022
not much progress has been made in this area.
Genesis Trading has been in huge trouble, after pausing withdrawals as a result of the FTX crash.
While centralised crypto lending poses some risks, especially if they are not transparent about how they generate yields.
At Krystal, we have partnered with trusted platforms in the DeFi space to provide you with passive income options for your idle assets.
You can stake or lend your assets with 5 different providers across 7 networks (including Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain and Polygon).
Connect your wallet and deposit your assets in our all-in-one platform now!
$8 million stolen from BitKeep users 💸
Hackers were able to hijack an APK version of the BitKeep wallet on Android, which resulted in users downloading a compromised version of the app.
1/ At 3-4 AM GMT+8 on December 26, 2022, a large-scale hacking incident occurred on BitKeep. After preliminary investigation, this large-scale hacking incident has been identified as a malicious fund attack with thousands of users involved.
— BitKeep Wallet (@BitKeepOS) December 27, 2022
This has led to users’ seed phrases being compromised, and the hacker was able to drain $8 million worth of funds from users’ wallets.
4/ We have traced and identified around $8 million stolen funds. BitKeep Tech team is pinpointing the root cause and tracking the stolen funds, some of which have already been frozen with the help of third parties.
— BitKeep Wallet (@BitKeepOS) December 27, 2022
We would like to stress the importance of downloading wallet applications from official sources, as there could be phishing websites that aim to steal your seed phrase.
Your seed phrase is like a master password to your wallet, and it should never be shared with anyone, as this will give them full control over your funds.
To find out more about seed phrases, you can check out our detailed article here.
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