Poloniex was initially tight-lipped, posting on Twitter that they had "disabled for maintenance" an exchange wallet. Justin Sun later updated that they were investigating the "hack incident", and promised to "fully reimburse" the massive theft... somehow. He later tweeted that they would offer a 5% "bounty" to the hacker if they returned the funds within a week, threatening to "engage law enforcement" otherwise.
Poloniex hacked for more than $120 million
Assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tron's TRX token, priced at more than $126 million, were stolen from Justin Sun's Poloniex cryptocurrency exchange. Researchers are still homing in on the exact amount of funds that were stolen from the company's hot wallets across multiple blockchains, but suffice to say it's a lot.
CoinSpot exchange exploited
The Australian cryptocurrency exchange CoinSpot appears to have been hacked for around 1,283 ETH (~$2.4 million). In two separate transactions, the ETH was transferred out of CoinSpot's hot wallet, then bridged to Bitcoin via Thorchain and another bridge.
Wintermute declares friendship over with Near Foundation and Aurora Labs after they refuse to send $11 million
"Public service announcement or 'how we are not really friends with Near Foundation and Aurora Labs going forward'", wrote Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy on Twitter. He launched into a thread accusing Near and Aurora of refusing to honor a previous agreement to facilitate the redemption of around 11.2 million USN, the de-pegged stablecoin of the Near network. Wintermute said they had helped FTX to sell that quantity of the USN tokens, providing them with dollars to disburse to creditors, under the belief that Near and Aurora would help them honor the USN redemptions at $1.
However, Near later decided it would not honor the redemption, accusing Wintermute of trying to pull off an arbitrage trade with the distressed asset. They also, somewhat curiously, claimed that the funds that were provided to Wintermute by the FTX estate may have been the tied to illegal activities. Aurora also described Wintermute's claims as "unfounded", and accused Wntermute of "tr[ying] to exploit the programme to profit from the purchase of distressed assets from the Alameda estate".
Wintermute has promised to "pursue all legal avenues" against the Near Foundation and Aurora Labs.
MEV bot exploited for almost $2 million
An MEV bot was exploited after an attacker discovered a vulnerability in its code that allowed anyone to call one of its functions that sold wBTC for wETH. Using a flash loan to imbalance a wETH/wBTC pool on Curve, the attacker then caused the bot to purchase wBTC at its inflated price. They then sold the wBTC for a profit. Altogether, the exploiter made off with 1,047 ETH ($1.975 million).
- Tweet thread by CertiK Alert [archive]
- Transaction on Etherscan [archive]
Arrests made in $300 million Indian crypto scam
Indian police have arrested around eighteen people, including four police officers, in connection with a $300 million cryptocurrency scam that affected around 100,000 people in Himachal Pradesh. Victims were invited to invest in a cryptocurrency called Korvio Coin (KRO), but later the scam incorporated other tokens as well. Around 5,000 government officials and around 1,000 police fell victim to the scam, with some themselves becoming promoters.
The scam was allegedly orchestrated by Subhash Sharma, who has not been apprehended. This particular fraud was uncovered in September, but has been ongoing since as long ago as 2018.
Yuga Labs' social media lead resigns after racist and antisemitic tweets resurface
One might think that a social media lead might have a grasp on his own social media accounts, and might have scrubbed damning tweets made only shortly before they began their position.
One also might think that a company embroiled in constant racism accusations might be cautious about screening its employees.
Neither of these things happened, though, and someone dug up vile tweets by Shpend Salihu, better known as NGBxShpend. Salihu resigned shortly after the tweets came to light, writing that they had "become a distraction from the [Bored Ape Yacht] Club and what we're all about."
Bored Ape collectors experience searing eye pain after "ApeFest" party
Bored Ape collectors attending an ApeFest party in Hong Kong have now been subjected to the kind of eye pain the rest of us have felt for years having to look at their hideous, pricey JPEGs.
The going theory is that event organizers skimped on lighting costs by using UV lights intended for sanitization, not for entertainment, causing burns to the eyes and skin. The eye condition, photokeratitis, is better known as "snow blindness" or "welder's flash", as it more typically affects people who haven't worn proper eye protection while welding or while exposed to sunlight reflected from ice and snow.
Several attendees reported having to seek emergency medical treatment after experiencing excruciating eye pain and vision problems, and tweet threads began circulating giving various other ApeFest attendees advice on recovering from the painful condition.
Bored Ape creator Yuga Labs belatedly issued a tweet two days after the incident, claiming only a small fraction of attendees had experienced "eye-related issues", but encouraging anyone with symptoms to "seek medical attention just in case".
Sam Bankman-Fried convicted on seven charges
After less than five hours of deliberation, a jury convicted Sam Bankman-Fried of seven fraud and money laundering charges. The conviction followed a five-week-long trial which culminated in Sam Bankman-Fried himself taking the stand, only to appear evasive and sullen as he told prosecutors he couldn't recall many significant events from his time as FTX CEO.
Sentencing is scheduled for March 28, 2024, though scheduling could be affected by factors including whether the US decides to continue pursuing an additional five charges also set to be tried in March.
- "Sam Bankman-Fried: guilty on all charges", Molly White's Newsletter [archive]
Monero discloses that its community crowdfunding wallet was drained
Monero's Community Crowdfunding System (CCS) funds projects that aim to improve the ecosystem of Monero, a privacycoin. The CCS is funded by donations, and up until September 1, 2023, held a balance of 2675.73 XMR (~$460,000). Two months after the fact, "Luigi" (a Monero developer and one of the two people with access to the wallet seed phrase) disclosed on Github that the wallet had been drained entirely. According to Luigi, he only discovered this a month after the theft.
The other person with access to the wallet is a former Monero developer named "fluffypony", or Ricardo Spagni. He surrendered to US authorities in July 2023 for extradition to South Africa, where he has been charged with invoice fraud against a cookie company (think chocolate chip, not software). However, he was released in late September, and has been working to "address this matter" while free but under court supervision.
Safemoon executives charged and arrested
An indictment charging SafeMoon executives with defrauding investors via their SafeMoon token was unsealed in the Eastern District of New York. Three defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy for their roles in creating Safemoon, a crypto token that once boasted a "market cap" of around $8 billion.
SafeMoon promised buyers it would "safely go to the moon" by locking the liquidity pool so that its developers couldn't rug pull. In reality, the "locking" didn't prevent the developers from removing tokens from the liquidity pool in other ways, which they did to the tune of millions of dollars. They then spent the proceeds of their crimes on personal expenses, like luxury sports cars and real estate.
Alongside the charges from the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission simultaneously brought a lawsuit against the SafeMoon executives for violating registration and anti-fraud provisions of securities laws.