CEO and CFO resign from Compass Mining
The CEO and CFO of Compass Mining, a Bitcoin mining hosting and brokerage services firm, both resigned suddenly on June 28. The sudden departures followed accusations the previous week from Dynamics Mining, who alleged that Compass owed them more than $600,000, and that employees had tried to break into a Bitcoin mining facility to steal back Bitcoin miners. Compass denied the allegations. Shortly afterward, the company closed its Discord channel with one day's notice, prompting allegations that they were attempting to thwart customers sharing information and complaints.
Hacker makes off with $3.8 million from the XCarnival "metaverse bank", returns half
XCarnival is a project describing itself as a "metaverse asset bank". The project drew in users by promising high rewards, with one marketing campaign promising 41% APY.
A hacker was able to exploit a flaw in the smart contract for the project, stealing crypto notionally worth $3.8 million. The loss to the protocol was likely higher. XCarnival paused its smart contract after learning about the hack from a crypto watchdog.
On June 26, XCarnival announced that they had reached an agreement to give a 1,500 ETH "bug bounty" to the attacker, who agreed to return the remaining 1,587 ETH ($1.9 million) with an agreement that XCarnival would not pursue legal action.
Even a free sports car couldn't get anyone to bid on Chevrolet's first NFT
Chevrolet decided to create their first ever NFT, an illustration of a bright green 2023 Corvette Z06. The 1 of 1 edition NFT, titled "Own the Color", also would come with a "free" real-life souped-up version of the car, painted in the same color, and with the promise that the shade would never be used again on that model of car.
The NFT went up for sale on June 20, with bidding scheduled to last for four days, and a starting bid of 206 ETH (around $240,000). Apparently collectors decided the NFT wasn't enough to justify dropping that kind of cash on a car that is expected to sell for around $90,000, because the auction received no bids.
SuperRare, the marketplace used for the auction, explained that users must have missed the opportunity to bid "due to the craziness of NFT NYC" (a cryptocurrency conference that ran from June 20–23), and the project extended the bidding time by 24 hours. After the 24 hours had elapsed, they still had zero bids.
Crypto payments not so popular at the crypto-themed restaurant
The LA Times reported that the Bored Ape-themed "Bored & Hungry" restaurant in Long Beach, California had stopped accepting crypto payments. Despite excitedly announcing the first ever crypto purchase, made with Apecoin, when the restaurant opened in April, it seems crypto payments haven't been working out for them. The Times reported that the restaurant had stopped accepting crypto at some point in the past, and that an employee described the crypto payment option as both unwieldy and unpopular with customers.
The Times later updated the story, writing that the company's co-founder told them that the restaurant shuts off the payment system "'from time to time' for upgrades", but was still accepting crypto.
The menu lists prices in USD, not Ether or Apecoin, and most people buy their $13 hamburgers with plain old fiat.
- Inside the crypto restaurant after the crypto crash, Los Angeles Times
Cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda announces layoffs, rescindment of offers
The Austrian cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda joined the recent litany of crypto companies laying off employees. In an announcement to staff, later shared publicly, the company cited changing market sentiment and unsustainably fast hiring as reasons for the layoffs.
The company announced they would be "scal[ing] down to a target organisational size of about 730 people". The company seems to have had around 1,000 employees, which means they are laying off around a quarter of their workforce. They also announced they would be rescinding employment offers they had extended recently.
- "The Way Forward", BitPanda
Cryptocurrencies notionally worth $100 million stolen from Horizon Bridge
The Horizon Bridge is a blockchain bridge allowing assets to be used across Ethereum, BNB, and Harmony blockchains. The bridge is run by the Harmony blockchain project.
On June 23, someone was able to steal assets from the bridge that they then converted to more than 85,800 ETH. The stolen funds are notionally valued at almost $100 million, assuming the thief can cash them out successfully. Hours after the attack, most of the funds remained in the thief's wallet and had not yet been laundered.
A June 29 analysis by blockchain research firm Ellipsis claimed that "there are strong indications that North Korea's Lazarus Group may be responsible for this theft". Lazarus was also behind the $625 million bridge hack in March, targeting the Axie Infinity game.
Senators Lummis and Gillibrand solicit feedback on their proposed crypto legislation via Github and it's off to a predictably chaotic start
After announcing their crypto-friendly proposed legislation earlier in June, Senators Lummis and Gillibrand have uploaded it to Github to solicit feedback, as was apparently widely requested of them by crypto advocates.
As one might expect, apparently-unmoderated open comments from some of the most online people out there has been off to a chaotic start. The first comment on the proposal, by a user with a Pepe the Frog avatar, is titled "Taxation is theft!" and reads, "Why should we pay any taxes to a corrupt government that prints money out of thin air and gives it away for free! Eliminate the FED!!! BITCOIN FOREVER!"
Another comment thread begins, "Feds are not looking post floppa" and accumulated over 100 replies containing photos of caracals within half an hour.
A different person submitted a pull request replacing the entire text of the bill with "cryptocurrencies are banned lmao".
On July 13, the creators of the Github repository removed all the issues and archived the repository, apparently bringing the experiment to its end.
- RFIA bill Github project
- Tweet by Cynthia Lummis
- Tweet thread by Molly White
CoinFLEX stops withdrawals due to "continued uncertainty involving a counterparty"
Yield farming platform CoinFLEX is the latest crypto platform to stop allowing customers to withdraw their money. Customers had raised concerns about withdrawals not processing, to which a team member repeatedly replied that "we haven't stopped withdrawals" and urged chatters to "please stop spreading FUD".
The company then posted an announcement that they would be "pausing all withdrawals" due to "extreme market conditions last week & continued uncertainty involving a counterparty". They were cagey about the identity of the counterparty, though the announcement explicitly stated it was not the underwater hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, which has been causing a domino effect throughout the crypto industry. They later alleged the counterparty was Roger Ver, though he denied the claim.
CoinFLEX began allowing customers to withdraw up to 10% of their funds on July 14, but the remaining 90% continued to be inaccessible to them.
- "Update on withdrawals", CoinFLEX
Hostess announces $TWINKcoin snack cakes
In a decision that makes you wonder if there was one single queer person in the room during the branding meetings, Hostess has announced $TWINKcoin snack cakes. The limited-edition product "is a play on the current cryptocurrency frenzy and features coin-shaped cakes", or, as most people would call them, cake-shaped cakes.
- "Hostess launches $TWINKcoin snack cakes", Food Business News
Invictus Capital suspends withdrawals
Invictus Capital, the group operating several cryptos in the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, announced to investors that it would be suspending redemptions. The company cited exposure to both Terra and the Celsius project, both of which have gone under in recent months. According to the announcement, the group is pursuing restructuring. The group claimed to have over $135 million under management.