Turkish authorities arrested Andreas Szakacs, also known as Emre Avci, for his role in the OmegaPro cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme. Victims were invited to make small investments in the "Omega Invest" application, which made quick returns. They were enticed to invest more and more, but when they attempted to withdraw funds, they discovered the money had been taken. Altogether, victims have claimed around $103&nbsp;million in losses.<p>The OmegaPro Ponzi scheme was reportedly linked to the OneCoin crypto Ponzi, whose operators stole at least $4&nbsp;billion from millions of victims since 2019. Multiple people associated with OneCoin have been arrested, <a href="https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=onecoin-cofounder-sentenced-to-prison" target="_blank">including its co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood</a>, but its "Cryptoqueen" co-founder <a href="https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=cryptoqueen-ruja-ignatova-added-to-europols-most-wanted-list-in-connection-to-onecoin-ponzi-scheme" target="_blank">Ruja Ignatova was one of Europol's most wanted fugitives</a> and remains the subject of an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpol_notice" target="_blank">Interpol red notice</a>.</p>

"$4B cryptocurrency scammer caught in Istanbul"

OmegaPro founder arrested

OmegaPro founder arrested for allegedly running crypto Ponzi

The Turkish cryptocurrency exchange BtcTurk has acknowledged that they suffered a hack that impacted ten <button class="define-target" id="hot-wallet">hot wallets</button> containing multiple cryptocurrencies. The exchange halted deposits and withdrawals while investigating, and said they are working with law enforcement.<p>It appears that assets notionally worth around $55&nbsp;million were stolen. Furthermore, the exploiter sold substantial amounts of some cryptocurrencies, including Luna Classic, causing major price movements in those tokens.</p><p>According to newly installed Binance CEO Richard Teng, Binance froze $5.3&nbsp;million of the stolen assets.</p>

BtcTurk exploit

BtcTurk exploited for at least $55&nbsp;million

A victim lost $11&nbsp;million in Aave Ethereum (aEthMK) and Pendle USDe tokens after signing several <button class="define-target" id="permit-phishing">permit phishing</button> signatures. Permit phishing is a technique in which scammers convince a victim to sign a transaction that grants broad permissions, allowing the scammer to then drain assets from the wallets.

0xfb94d theft

Victim loses $11&nbsp;million to permit phishing

Some users of the Bittensor wallet software suffered wallet drains as thieves emptied their cryptocurrency wallets of the project’s TAO token. Around 32,000&nbsp;TAO, notionally worth around $8&nbsp;million, was siphoned. Although blockchain sleuth zachxbt hypothesized that the attack may have been thanks to a <button class="define-target" id="private-key">private key</button> leak, Bittensor later claimed that affected users had in fact been compromised by a malicious Bittensor package that had been uploaded to Python's PyPi package manager. It's not yet clear how the malicious package made it onto the package manager.<p>Bittensor is among the artificial intelligence-focused cryptocurrency projects that have become popular recently amid the AI hype. Although the project website boasts that "Bittensor is creating a new future for humanity, where new economies and new commodities are decentralized by design and where no single entity is a sole authority," the group unilaterally halted the chain in the wake of the attack.</p>

"Bittensor Community Update — July 3, 2024"

Bittensor wallet drain

Bittensor wallets drained

It appears that the online crypto sports betting platform Sportsbet.io suffered a theft of around $3.5&nbsp;million in USDT and Tron's TRX tokens. The theft was observed by crypto sleuth zachxbt, who noted that the theft seems to have been perpetrated by the same attacker who <a href="https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=btcturk-exploited-for-at-least-55-million" target="_blank">stole at least $55&nbsp;million from the BtcTurk cryptocurrency exchange</a> only hours earlier.<p>SportsBet has not yet disclosed any theft.</p>

Sportsbet.io hack

Sportsbet.io likely hacked for $3.5&nbsp;million

Prominent blockchain security firm CertiK has accused American cryptocurrency exchange Kraken of threatening them after they reported a bug. According to CertiK, they discovered a bug in the exchange software, which they tested with multiple transactions over several days. Some of these were large transactions, which CertiK said they performed to test whether Kraken had alerting in place to detect higher-value transfers. When they reported the vulnerability to the exchange, they say the exchange patched the bug, but then threatened CertiK employees and demanded they repay a "mismatched" amount of crypto allegedly taken during the testing period.<p>However, others have noted that the number of transactions and amount of cryptocurrency taken by CertiK while "investigating" the bug seems to far exceed the norm for <button class="define-target" id="whitehat">whitehat</button> security researchers, and that they took cryptocurrency amounting to millions of dollars — making their "testing" look a lot more like a blackhat theft. Furthermore, CertiK made several transfers to Tornado Cash as part of their "testing" — an entity that is sanctioned by the United States.</p><p>Kraken alleged that CertiK did not disclose the full extent of their employees' transactions, and refused to return the $3 million they had taken. They also alleged that CertiK had attempted to extort them. Kraken said they had been in contact with law enforcement, and were "treating this as a criminal case".</p><p>Ultimately, CertiK returned the funds. However, it's not clear if criminal action may be ongoing.</p>

CertiK and Kraken bug dispute

CertiK and Kraken accuse each other of misconduct over bug report and $3&nbsp;million "testing"

<button class="define-target" id="defi">Defi</button> platform Dough Finance was hacked for 608&nbsp;ETH ($1.8&nbsp;million) by a hacker using a <button class="define-target" id="flash-loan">flash loan</button> attack funded through the Railgun privacy service.<p>Dough Finance sent an on-chain message to the attacker, asking them to return the "misappropriated funds", threatening that they would "pursue all criminal, legal, and administrative avenues available" in the event that the attacker did not do so.</p>

"Dough Finance loses $1.8M in flash loan attack"

Dough Finance hack

Dough Finance hacked for $1.9&nbsp;million

An attacker stole $1.4&nbsp;million from the <button class="define-target" id="defi">defi</button> lending project Minterest. Using a <button class="define-target" id="flash-loan">flash loan</button> attack, they manipulated the exchange rate calculated by the project, allowing them to withdraw more tokens than they originally loaned.<p>Minterest paused the supply and borrow portions of their protocol after the attack, and attempted to contact the attacker to negotiate a return of some of the funds.</p>

Minterest hack

Minterest hacked for $1.4&nbsp;million

50 Cent has claimed his Twitter account and website were hacked to promote a <button class="define-target" id="memecoin">memecoin</button> called $GUNIT. "I have no association with this crypto," the rapper wrote on Instagram.<p>50 Cent also claimed in the post that "Who ever did this made $300,000,000 in 30 minutes." It's not clear where 50 Cent got this number, because the token has only done $19.8&nbsp;million in volume. One wallet made around $722,000 off the token, and three others also made over $100,000.</p>

50 Cent account compromise

50 Cent claims his accounts were compromised to promote a memecoin

The token for the Farcana blockchain shooting game plummeted in value by around 60%. First, the project team announced that one of the project wallets had been compromised. However, they later deleted that tweet, then claimed that one of their market makers had been compromised. They emphasized that their wallets had not been hacked, and that their smart contracts had not been exploited.<p>23.8&nbsp;million&nbsp;FAR were taken from a wallet, and the majority were sold for around $164,000 in USDT. The exploiter still holds 3.4&nbsp;million FAR, which are notionally worth $83,250 but not likely to be sellable for that amount.</p><p>Farcana raised $10&nbsp;million in seed funding in November 2023 from investors including Animoca and Polygon Ventures.</p>

“Farcana (FAR) plunges 60% amid reports of hacked wallet”

Farcana token plunge

Farcana token plummets 60% amid murky explanations

The Department of Justice busted a group of more than a dozen people, led by a 24-year-old man named Remy St. Felix, who perpetrated a string of break-ins and violent assaults in hopes of obtaining their victims' cryptocurrency holdings. The group seems to have been far more successful with their hacking thefts than with their in-person attempts to obtain cryptocurrency, but that didn't stop them from committing a string of eleven break-ins where they assaulted, threatened, and kidnapped victims.<p>In one case, a victim was able to transfer $150,000 in cryptocurrency to the attackers before their cryptocurrency exchange blocked the suspicious transfers. However, in their other attempts to physically steal crypto, they were unsuccessful, with victims either refusing to hand over their crypto or successfully escaping.</p><p>In one case, St. Felix and his associates targeted a woman from whom his group had already stolen $3&nbsp;million in a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_swap_scam" target="_blank">SIM swapping</a> attack. When they broke in and held the woman at gunpoint to try to steal the $500,000 in crypto she had left, the woman refused to turn over her password to her cryptocurrency account, so dismayed by her earlier loss that she told the men just to shoot her.</p><p>St. Felix was convicted on nine counts by a federal jury, and faces a sentence of seven years to life in prison. Thirteen co-conspirators also pleaded guilty.</p>

"Man Convicted of Violent Home Invasion Robberies to Steal Cryptocurrency"

"Inside a Violent Gang's Ruthless Crypto-Stealing Home Invasion Spree"

Event	Date	Amount More info	Recovered More info
OmegaPro founder arrested	July 9, 2024	$103,000,000
BtcTurk exploit	June 22, 2024	$90,000,000	$5,300,000
0xfb94d theft	June 23, 2024	$11,000,000
Bittensor wallet drain	July 2, 2024	$8,000,000
Sportsbet.io hack	June 22, 2024	$3,500,000
CertiK and Kraken bug dispute	June 19, 2024	$3,000,000
Dough Finance hack	July 12, 2024	$1,800,000
Minterest hack	July 14, 2024	$1,400,000
50 Cent account compromise	June 22, 2024	$1,000,000
Farcana token plunge	June 23, 2024	$164,000
Remy St. Felix conviction	June 25, 2024	$150,000