Gemini has formed a creditor committee to try to recoup funds from Genesis, as well as Genesis parent company DCG.
Genesis owes $900 million to customers of Gemini Earn
After a domino effect in which Gemini suspended withdrawals from its "Earn" lending product due to Genesis suspending withdrawals due to FTX's collapse, it's been revealed by the FT that Genesis holds around $900 million in Gemini customer assets.
- "Crypto broker Genesis owes Winklevoss exchange’s customers $900mn", Financial Times
AAX customers search for executives
On November 13, the AAX cryptocurrency exchange suspended withdrawals, claiming they were dealing with a botched system upgrade. Shortly before, they had reassured their customers that they had stable reserves and no exposure to FTX.
On November 28, the company's vice president for global marketing and communications acknowledged that he had resigned from the company, explaining on Twitter that "I did fight for the community but none of the initiatives we came up with were accepted."
Upon realizing that the exchange was unlikely to resume withdrawals, some customers have taken it upon themselves to try to find AAX's executives. Some showed up at the Hong Kong headquarters, only to find it deserted. Another user appeared at their Singaporean coworking space, also to find it empty. Users have been posting leaked personal identity documents of listed executives on Telegram, hoping to locate them.
Oracle attack on Helio, enabled by a separate hack on Ankr, allows attackers to steal $15 million
Attackers were able to take advantage of an exploit on the Ankr protocol to obtain around 183,000 aBNBc tokens for only 10 BNB (~$2,900). Before the Ankr exploit, which crashed the price of aBNBc, this many aBNBc tokens would have had a notional value of around $55.5 million. An issue with the price oracle on the staking platform Helio allowed attackers to borrow 16,444,740 HAY, a stablecoin intended to be pegged to the US dollar. The attackers then swapped those HAY for around $15 million in the BUSD stablecoin. Meanwhile, the HAY stablecoin lost its peg, crashing as low as $0.20.
Ankr defi project exploited for over $5 million
The BNB Chain-based Ankr defi protocol suffered an exploit of their aBNBc token. "We are currently working with exchanges to immediately halt trading," they wrote. However, the attacker had already bridged and tumbled around $5 million in funds from the exploit before the announcement was even made.
The attacker, and possible subsequent copycat attackers, used a vulnerability in the project smart contract to mint quadrillions of aBNBc, which they then swapped to various other tokens.
Binance halted trading on aBNBc tokens, as well as on HAY tokens, a stablecoin project that was subsequently exploited. Ankr also tweeted that "We have been in touch with the [decentralized exchanges] and told them to block trading", although decentralized exchanges are typically not supposed to be able to "block trading".
Ankr later blamed the hack on an employee, who they say had inserted malicious code into the protocol that was used to exfiltrate the private key.
Maersk and IBM announce the discontinuation of their blockchain-based TradeLens platform
Tough news for folks who insist that blockchains' obvious use case is for supply chains: IBM and Maersk have discontinued their private blockchain-based TradeLens platform due to lack of interest.
The idea was to use a private blockchain to "promote more efficient and secure global trade" by allowing shipping companies to share information including shipping container contents and tracking. However, it was apparently tough to convince these companies to actually adopt the project, and Maersk and IBM pulled the plug.
Auros misses loan payment due to FTX exposure
Crypto trading firm Auros missed a payment on its 2,400 wETH (~$3 million) loan from the Maple defi lending project. According to M11 Credit, the operator of the credit pool from which Auros has taken the loan, this was due to "a short-term liquidity issue as a result of the FTX insolvency".
In total, Auros has 8,400 wETH (~$10.7 million) and $7.5 million in USDC in loans from M11 credit pools, plus another $2.4 million in loans from the Clearpool defi lending project, for a total of more than $20 million in unsecured loans.
Kraken pays over $360,000 to settle violations of sanctions against Iran
The US cryptocurrency exchange Kraken settled charges from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) alleging that they had violated sanctions against Iran. In the agreement, Kraken will pay $362,158.70 for the potential civil liability, and agree to commit $100,000 in various compliance controls.
The OFAC investigation was first revealed in July, in reporting from the New York Times.
- Settlement Agreement between the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and Payward, Inc. ("Kraken"), U.S. Department of the Treasury
Kraken lays off 1,100 employees in 30% cut
The US cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced that it had laid off 30% of its employees, or about 1,100 people. They blamed "macroeconomic and geopolitical factors" resulting in less trading and fewer clients. "Unfortunately, negative influences on the financial markets have continued and we have exhausted preferable options for bringing costs in line with demand," they wrote.
Bitso lays off more employees
After cutting around 10% of their employees in May, the Latin American crypto exchange Bitso has performed another round of layoffs.
The company didn't reveal how many employees were affected by the layoffs, but Portal do Bitcoin estimated that around 100 employees were let go — around 15–20% of the company's remaining staff. One employee wrote on LinkedIn that he was among "dozens" who were laid off.
- "Bitso cuts more staff in fresh round of layoffs", The Block
- "Corretora de criptomoedas Bitso faz segunda rodada de demissões no Brasil e no México", Portal do Bitcoin (in Portuguese)
Block subsidiary TBD announces they will trademark "Web5", cancels plans after completely foreseeable backlash
TBD is a subsidiary of Block (formerly Square), a tech company co-founded by billionaire social media mogul and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. In July, they unveiled the concept of "Web5", which they define an "extra decentralized web platform".
Who could have predicted that people might balk when TBD then announced they would try to trademark the term? Apparently they saw no irony in their attempt as a single, powerful entity to gain control over the trademark.
The same was not true of the people who responded to the post, who wrote things like, "We need to make sure web 5 is truly open by copyrighting it", and simply "🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡".
Six hours later, the company tweeted, "we have heard the community and we are responding to their concerns". They issued a statement acknowledging that "we have heard loud voices in the community who are concerned about the potential for abuse of trademark law in ways that would undermine the mission of decentralization." Gee, you think?
And no, they still haven't explained what happened to web4.