The announcement seemed to come as a relief to many in the Ingress community, with commenters remarking on the "scammy" nature of NFTs. Some wrote that they liked the idea, but that the web3 factor felt like it was "shoehorned" in. "I'll miss the Trading Post, please never bring NFTs or in fact any blockchain into future projects, or if you do at the very very least make it actually matter to the thing it's being put into, but still preferably just don't," said one.
Niantic shutters its web3 project after less than six months
Niantic, the creator of the popular Ingress and Pokémon Go augmented reality games, announced it will be shutting down its "Trading Post" product for NFT trading cards that it had launched only months before. "Trading Post was an experimentation effort to explore the world of digital collectibles, and while we believe that web3 has the potential to create meaningful experiences in the future, we plan to shift focus to other priorities," they wrote. Owners of the NFTs were told they have sixty days to "download" their cards, and that trading would be disabled in 30 days.
- Trading Post shutdown announcement on Ingress discussion forums
GDAC exchange hacked for assets notionally worth more than $14 million
Hackers made off with 61 BTC, 350.5 ETH, 10 million WEMIX, and 220,000 USDT from a hot wallet belonging to the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange GDAC. Altogether, the assets are notionally worth around $13 million. The stolen assets represented 23% of funds custodied on the GDAC exchange.
GDAC halted deposits and withdrawals shortly after the attack, and stated that they had reported the exploit to South Korean law enforcement to investigate.
Terraport Finance hacked for $2 million less than two weeks after launch
Terraport Finance is a defi project built on, believe it or not, the Terra blockchain. Yes, the same Terra blockchain on which the Terra/Luna projects were built. Despite the massive collapse of the flagship project in May 2022, there are still a number of Terra projects operating, and even some new projects being developed.
Terraport Finance launched on March 31, apparently having gone live without any sort of audit. On April 10, Terraport disclosed that an attacker had apparently managed to drain all project liquidity pools, making off with assets priced at around $2 million.
Trader loses 14,377 $APE (~$61,000) when they sell their Bored Ape
The former owner of Bored Ape #7810 presumably intended to agree to sell the ape to another buyer for 70 ETH (~$130,900). However, it's unlikely they intended for that buyer to also be able to access the staked $APE they had accrued. With this particular staking mechanism, the Bored Ape effectively serves as the "key" to the staked ApeCoin, and so it transferred to the NFT's new owner right along with the NFT.
0xSifu loses more than $2.7 million to SushiSwap hack
0xSifu, also known as Michael Patryn, also known as Omar Dahani, is the once-pseudonymous chief developer of the Wonderland protocol. His identity was discovered by zachxbt in January 2022, when the crypto sleuth revealed that "0xSifu" was Patryn, a man with a history of financial crimes who was previously involved with QuadrigaCX, an exchange which lost over $150 million in customer funds in 2018.
Today, Sifu himself was the victim of a theft as a bug in the SushiSwap decentralized exchange allowed a hacker to make off with around 1,800 ETH (more than $3.3 million) belonging to him. According to SushiSwap leader Jared Grey, around 300 ETH (~$557,000) of Sifu's funds were subsequently recovered.
Analysts have found that almost 200 addresses on the Ethereum network have approved the vulnerable contract, and around 2,000 addresses approved the vulnerable contract on Arbitrum, Polygon, and other chains. It's not yet clear how much was stolen in total. SushiSwap leader Grey urged users via Twitter to revoke approval for the vulnerable smart contract.
Bitcoin mining firm sues business partner after they allegedly lose $500,000 in Bitcoin to fraudster
Bitcoin mining firm Sphere 3D has filed a biting lawsuit against its partner, Gryphon Digital Mining. According to Sphere 3D, Gryphon's CEO was fooled by multiple spoofing attacks in which fraudsters pretending to be Sphere 3D executives instructed him to transfer 26 Bitcoin (~$500,000). Sphere 3D further alleges that "Gryphon panicked when Sphere suggested that the incident be reported to law enforcement, including the Federal Bureau of Investigations ('FBI'), insisted that the issue could be handled between the
parties, and demanded that no one report the theft to the authorities."
The lawsuit also alleges that Gryphon has " dutifully collected its exorbitant Management Fee while shirking its duties under the MSA and delivering abhorrent management services" and "skimm[ed] off the top (i.e., st[ole]) from Sphere's assets".
dYdX exchange announces it will shut down Canadian operations
dYdX announced that it would be shutting down its decentralized derivatives exchange in Canada. They gestured toward regulatory issues in the post, writing that, "We hope that the regulatory climate in Canada will change over time to allow us to resume services in the country."
Canada has become more strict on cryptocurrency exchanges in recent months, particularly following the collapse of FTX.
Someone steals the Bored Ape belonging to former NFL star Dez Bryant
The latest ape escape has affected Dez Bryant, a former NFL player now turned "web3 innovator". Bryant was the proud owner of Bored Ape #2902, an ape with leopard print skin wearing shades, a sailor shirt, and a crown. However, on April 7, Bryant was apparently hacked, and the thief stole not only his ape but Moonbirds, World of Women, and RumbleKongLeague NFTs (one each) and some various cryptocurrencies.
The Bored Ape would likely fetch somewhere around $125,000 if resold. The other three NFTs would likely resell for somewhere around $8,700. Together with around $3,400 in stolen tokens, Bryant's total loss is around $139,000.
After some observers spotted the suspicious-looking transactions, Bryant confirmed on Twitter: "Yes my ape was stolen and I don't know how this is crazy".
- dez.eth on Etherscan
- Tweet by Dez Bryant
Gemholic raises 921 ETH (~$1.7 million) in a token sale only to realize funds are stuck
The Gemholic project raised 921 ETH (~$1.7 million) in a token sale only to discover there was no way for them to transfer those funds out of the smart contract. The project is built on the zkSync layer 2, and the smart contract developers implemented their transfer function using
.transfer() — a common function used with Ethereum projects that is not supported by zkSync.The zkSync project evidently came to the rescue of Gemholic, announcing that they would change the protocol in a new release to add support for Solidity functions such as .transfer(), which will ultimately free Gemoholic's locked funds.
Binance closes its derivatives arm in Australia
Binance announced it would be closing its derivatives business in Australia "following recent engagement with ASIC", referring to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The subsequent day, Reuters reported that ASIC had withdrawn Binance's financial services license at Binance's request, related to an ongoing investigation into Binance. The investigation has been underway since at least February, and involves misclassification of some Binance retail customers as wholesale users. Though Binance has forfeited its license, the investigation is ongoing.
Binance will continue to operate its spot exchange product in Australia, but customers will no longer be able to trade derivatives on the platform after April 21.