Celer Network's cBridge suffers BGP hijacking attack, users lose combined $240,000
The Celer Network's cBridge project was targeted with a BGP hijacking attack. Users who tried to access the bridge's frontend were instead shown a site that prompted them to authorize transactions that drained their wallets. The attacker was able to steal around 128 ETH (~$240,000) before the exploit was discovered and Celer took the frontend offline. The stolen funds were quickly transfered to the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency tumbler.
- Tweet by CelerNetwork
- Etherscan for attacker wallet
- "Truth Behind the Celer Network cBridge cross-chain bridge incident: BGP hijacking", SlowMist
Genesis lays off 20% of employees, jettisons CEO after Three Arrows Capital disaster
Crypto broker Genesis is laying off 20% of their employees and reshuffling their leadership in the wake of a several-hundred-million dollar loss related to the Three Arrows Capital implosion. With 260 employees, the 20% workforce cut will affect around 50 employees. Genesis also announced that their CEO Michael Moro would be "stepping down".
- "Genesis Announces New Leadership Team", press release
- "Genesis CEO Steps Down as Crypto Broker Slashes Its Workforce", Bloomberg
Canadian pension manager says they invested "too soon" in the crypto sector after $150 million loss
Canadian caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Canada's second-largest pension fund manager, sunk $150 million into Celsius during a WestCap-led funding round announced in October 2021.
Needless to say, this hasn't worked out so hot for CDPQ — Celsius locked up its customers' funds in June and filed for bankruptcy in July, and the courts are in the middle of trying to figure out how to untangle it all. "For us it's clear when we look at all of this, even if the last chapter has not been written, that we went in too soon into a sector that was in transition", said CDPQ's CEO.
CDPQ reported a $33.6 billion loss in the first half of 2022, which they attribute mostly to declines in equity and bond markets.
SEC files complaint against Dragonchain in relation to their 2017 ICO
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against an individual and his companies in relation to their sale of Dragon tokens in 2017. The ICO raised $16.5 million, but the SEC has said the event was an unregistered securities offering, and has demanded the proceeds be returned and a penalty be paid.
Hodlnaut applies for creditor protection
After halting withdrawals on August 8, Singaporean crypto lender Hodlnaut has applied for protection against creditors: a process similar to the U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
They explained in a statement that they made the decision in order to try to avoid forced asset liquidation, "as it is a suboptimal solution that will require us to sell our users' cryptocurrencies at these current depressed asset prices".
Claims of racist imagery in Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project make it to court
In a motion to dismiss a trademark lawsuit filed by Yuga Labs (the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project) against Ryder Ripps and various others, the defendants outlined in detail their beliefs that the Bored Apes project intentionally includes racist and Nazi dogwhistles, and that Yuga's lawsuit is a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) intended to silence criticism.
Ripps is a part of a group of people who have vocally criticized the Bored Apes project for being racist and antisemitic, with what they believe are intentional hat-tips to 4chan culture. Ripps also created his own NFT project, called RR/BAYC, where he clones the Bored Ape NFTs and sells them in what he says is a "critique [of the] hateful imagery". Because Yuga Labs has never brought action against any of the many Bored Ape ripoff NFT collections, he and his lawyers are arguing this lawsuit is an attempt to silence his criticism.
Some of Ripps' and others' individual claims about dogwhistles in the project are more believable than others, but in their entirety they are pretty damning. Ripps is not the only one who has been outspoken about the issue, and is joined by people in and outside of the NFT world.
- "Court filing in Bored Apes lawsuit revives claims founders built NFT empire on Nazi ideology", Daily Dot
- Motion to dismiss
- "Bored Ape Yacht Club is Racist and Contains Nazi Dog Whistles", Ryder Ripps' website
- "BAYC (Bored Ape Yacht Club, the highest market cap NFT) is racist. All that remains to be answered is: why?", Fredrick Brennan
- "Yuga Labs—the author of the highest market cap NFT—is either racist or complicit in Kerem Atalay (one of its executives)’s indifference to racism.", Fredrick Brennan
BitGo plans to seek damages from Galaxy Digital after they called off their $1.2 billion acquisition
In May 2021, investment management firm Galaxy Digital announced their plans to acquire crypto custodian BitGo for $1.2 billion in what would be the first $1 billion dollar deal for the crypto industry. At the time, crypto prices were near all-time-highs.
Galaxy Digital claims that BitGo failed to provide audited financial statements for 2021 by the deadline they had agreed upon, and for that reason they decided to end the deal.
BitGo claims they've still got time to provide the statements, and that Galaxy Digital owes them $100 million for breaking the deal, which they plan to pursue in court.
Galaxy Digital just reported a ~$555 million dollar loss in the second quarter, which may have contributed towards their choice to back out of the acquisition.
In June 2023, the Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed BitGo's complaint with prejudice, finding that Galaxy Digital had a "clean termination right" based on BitGo's failure to provide financial statements.
Eqonex closes its crypto exchange
The Nasdaq-listed firm Eqonex has announced they will close their "underperforming" crypto exchange, hoping to change their money allocation to "reflect the current market conditions and the opportunities that we are best placed to capture". They cited " extreme market volatility and declining trading volumes" as making it challenging to keep the exchange afloat.
They announced that the exchange will stop trading on August 22, and customers have a month to withdraw their funds.
Collector loses four Bored Apes valued at over $500,000 to phishing attack
An NFT collector who goes by ASEC_APE lost four Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs to a phishing attack. The attacker quickly flipped three of the four NFTs for a total of around 200 ETH (~$387,000). The fourth is listed for sale on the NFT platform X2Y2 for 84.59 ETH (~$159,000) — a total profit of $546,000 for the scammer if they find a buyer at that price.
ASEC_APE had just purchased the four NFTs between July 15 and August 13 for a combined total of 326 ETH (~$532,000 based on ETH prices at the time of each purchase; ~$631,000 at the price on the day of the theft).
One of the stolen NFTs, Bored Ape 9012, had just been stolen a week before from Cameo CEO Steven Galanis when his wallet was compromised, as were a handful of other pricey NFTs. ASEC_APE had purchased it from the person who purchased it from the hacker shortly after the August 6 theft.
Brazilian crypto lender BlueBenx halts customer withdrawals and lays off employees after $32 million "hack"
The Brazilian crypto lending platform BlueBenx suddenly shut its doors after announcing they had suffered an "extremely aggressive" hack of 160 million BRL (US$32 million). However, they shared very little in the way of details, leading investors to question the veracity of their story.
All 22,000 customers of BlueBenx suddenly found them unable to withdraw funds from the platform. The platform also reportedly laid off the majority of its employees.