Crypto Scoop: Bitcoin Stabilizes at $37,000 as SOL's Wormhole Bridge Gets Hacked

Happy New Month! We are excited to bring you this edition of the crypto scoop. Bitcoin's price stabilized above $35 in the last month, can we look for a bullish run this month, or is the bearish run set to continue? For this week, we will be reviewing

• Bitcoin’s current price movement
• USDC launch on Flow blockchain
• Worm bridge hack of 80,000 ETH
• Facebook’s Diem cancellation
• Botswana’s recent crypto adoption policies

Bitcoin Whale moves $390 million worth of BTC.

Following bitcoin’s price dips, several sell-offs have further drowned the digital asset in red.  According to Morgan Stanley, since its inception in 2009, bitcoin has suffered 15 bear markets, and the present decline is within the range of what has transpired previously.

However, the biggest shock for crypto enthusiasts was when an unknown whale seemed to have initiated a significant sell-off. Bitcoin Block Bot reported that a whale moved 10,156 BTC worth $390 million in block 721,242 when bitcoin's price was $38,000.

"It is difficult to value bitcoin on basic demand beyond asset speculation until it is widely used as a currency for goods and services transactions (in the crypto or non-crypto world)," Morgan Stanley said. However, despite numerous sell-offs, bitcoin’s price seems to have found some stability above $37,000. 

USDC Launches on Flow Blockchain

Circle, one of the largest payment firms in the United States, has released USDC, one of its flagship products, on Flow, an NFT, and Web3-focused blockchain. The Flow chain now allows users to mint and redeem USDC directly on the site. This movement aims to make it easier for users of Flow projects to transfer and exploit value throughout the ecosystem's decentralized apps (dapps).

According to Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle, the flow blockchain has emerged as the go-to destination for vibrant communities of developers, artists, creators, and marketers constructing their blockchain-based digital media and entertainment experiences.

Allaire went on to say that this new collaboration, in his opinion, will make payments easier and assist traffic on the network grow in new and existing enterprises. NBA Top Shots is one of the NFT initiatives on the Flow chain, established by Dapper Labs, the inventors of Cryptokitties.

Solana’s Wormhole Bridge Gets Hacked

Hackers have recently hacked the famous Solana Wormhole bridge, stealing 80K ETH (212.3 million). A wormhole is a token bridge that allows users to send and receive crypto without using a centralized exchange across Ethereum, Solana, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Polygon, Avalanche, Oasis, and Terra. This is the second-biggest decentralized finance hack to date and the largest crypto hack of 2022 thus far. For the return of the funds, the Wormhole team has offered a $10 million bug bounty.

80,000 in Wrapped ETH (WETH) was put into the hacker's wallet, according to Etherscan. Developers are currently negotiating with the hackers, who submitted an on-chain message on Notifi asking for a 10 million (4.7 percent) return of the funds.

In a recent tweet, Vitalik sounded the alarm about the security hazards of cross-chain bridges, almost as if he was forecasting it. Due to the increased attack vectors of bridged assets when they are transferred over an expanding number of chains and decentralized applications, the Ethereum co-founder expressed his objection to deploying cross-chain solutions. 

According to the firm's recent blog post, the Phantom wallet team has raised $109 million in a Series B financing round. With its recent post valuation of $1.2 billion, the firm is now a Unicorn Furthermore. Phantom also launched the Solana wallet’s iOS version for Apple smartphone users. According to the announcement, the $109 Series B was led by Paradigm. Jump Capital, Solana Ventures, Variant, and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) participated in Phantom’s latest fundraise.

The funds will be dedicated to onboarding more users and developers on to Web3 and also “innovating on the multi-chain wallet user experience.” Moreover, the company said it plans to scale the team and hire specialists in community support and product development.

Facebook’s DIEM project is cancelled, and Meta shares Tumble.

On Wednesday, Facebook disclosed its first-ever dip in daily user numbers, causing its parent company's stock to plummet. Meta, Mark Zuckerberg's renamed social media empire, announced a drop in daily active user figures for its app. In the three months leading up to December, Facebook users fell to 1.929 billion, down from 1.93 billion the previous quarter. The symbolic loss of approximately 1 million subscribers, the first in 18 years, contributed to a 20 percent decline in Meta stock price. 

Diem, Facebook's parent company Meta's digital currency project, has been canceled, putting an end to months of speculation about the stablecoin's future. After facing substantial criticism from regulators and lawmakers, Meta and its partners decided to pull the plug.

In 2019, Facebook created the Diem Association, formerly known as Libra, with the help of several partners, including Visa and Mastercard and internet giants like Lyft and Spotify. It was hoped that entering into payments would provide it with a new revenue stream, but concerns about Facebook's involvement led to the withdrawal of several of the initial partners.

Diem was chosen as the currency's name in December 2020 to emphasize that it would be independent of Facebook, but it failed to rekindle interest, and the project has now been canceled for good.

Meta's unsuccessful cryptocurrency project, Diem, was "wasted work and time," according to Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, who believes the company should have concentrated its efforts on "making Bitcoin more accessible for everyone."

Botswana Passes Bill to Regulate Crypto and Digital Tokens Trading

Botswana, a South African country, has revealed intentions to regulate cryptocurrencies and other forms of digital currency. This is one of the countries' anti-money laundering initiatives. According to Bloomberg, the need to regulate cryptocurrencies arose because the industry could not be left unregulated in order to protect the nation's effort in tackling financial crimes.

India's finance secretary has also stated that cryptocurrencies are not and will not be banned in India. He explained that the government was consulting widely on what is working on cryptocurrencies both locally and abroad. Following their deliberations, the finance minister also declared that crypto transactions will be taxed at 30%.

Whereas India has tightened its tax regulations, Thailand is softening its grip. Thailand has abolished the 15% withholding tax that had previously been levied on cryptocurrency investors.

Binance Restricts 281 Nigerian Accounts on suspicion of Money Laundering. 

Binance recently came under fire by its Nigerian users for the "unreasonable" cancellation of their accounts. In a message to Nigerian customers on Saturday, Changpeng Zhao, the company's CEO, stated that the decision to block some personal accounts was made to guarantee user safety to comply with international money laundering regulations.  "These personal account restrictions have impacted 281 Nigerian accounts, with around 38% of these cases prohibited at the instruction of international law enforcement."

He continued, "We've resolved 79 cases so far, and we're still working on the others. All cases that are not related to law enforcement will be settled within two weeks, "he stated

Ugandan cryptocurrency director arrested over sh3 billion

On charges of fraudulent practices, John Mwangutsya, the director of Crypto Bridge African Limited, has been arrested. He is suspected of defrauding Ugandans of over Sh3 billion. Mwangutsya is accused of defrauding over 1000 Ugandans by promising a 6% increase in a week.

He liquidated the company fled after gathering the people's assets between 2018 and 2020. However, he was apprehended while attempting to flee to Rwanda, and he is now facing fraud charges under false pretense.

Because cryptocurrency scams are becoming more prevalent, it is vital to exercise caution and conduct your research to prevent being conned. Remember, if something seems too good to be true, it most often is.

Read also: How To Spot And Avoid Crypto Scams

South Africa’s FSCA issues warning on FTX and Bybit

Financial Sector Conduct Authority has issued warnings to South Africans against trading or dealing with crypto exchanges FTX and Bybit. FTX is not authorized to deal in contracts for difference (CFDs), which are instruments that allow traders to bet on the short-term fluctuation of an asset's price, according to the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA). 

The FSCA has become aware that FTX may be allowing the general public in South Africa access to its online platform to trade in derivatives products, among other things. Bybit has been in communication with the FSCA and will continue to do so in the hopes of resolving the problem to the satisfaction of all parties involved."

Following a couple of large crypto-related frauds in South Africa last year, the Financial Services Commission of South Africa (FSCA) announced plans to draft a regulatory framework for crypto trading in December. The framework is expected to be unveiled in the first quarter of this year.