• Hacked vanity addresses were used to loot $500K worth of tokens during the Arbitrum airdrop on March 23.
• Someone who generated a list of eligible vanity addresses stole the tokens, and the original owners are no longer able to claim them.
• Around 428 million ARB tokens still remain unclaimed, with a value of $596 million.

Arbitrum Airdrop Controversy

According to recent on-chain data, hacked vanity addresses were used in looting $500K worth of tokens during the layer-2 scaling solution Arbitrum airdrop scheduled on March 23. Someone who generated a list of vanity addresses that were eligible for ARB airdrops was the one who stole the tokens. The tweet explained that the tokens had been stolen by an individual who had first compiled a list of vanity addresses qualified to receive ARB tokens. He then managed to generate similar addresses using vanity address generators, eventually directing the airdropped tokens to these newly developed accounts instead. Since these vanity addresses were hacked, the original owners of the ARB tokens will no longer be able to claim them.

Reaction from Crypto Community

Several cryptocurrency users have taken to Twitter to express their dismay following the theft of their ARB tokens. Most of those impacted need to be more knowledgeable regarding the cause of the loss and have no idea how to respond appropriately.

Unclaimed Tokens Remain

The token giveaway hosted by Arbitrum generated a lot of buzzes and swamped several other websites; however, according to blockchain analytics tool Nansen reports that there are still 428 million ARB tokens that remain unclaimed. As of late March 22, around 61% out of eligible crypto wallets had already claimed governance token; leaving around 240,000 eligible address without claiming their share yet (37% out fo 1.1 billion). As far as value is concerned, these unclaimed coins amount up too close too $596 Million at this time writing this article

What Are Vanity Addresses?

Vanity address is basically unique crypto address which incorporate user’s chosen phrase or word – like your name or any random combination which you would like it too look like something special than just random numbers & letters combination ethereum wallet address usually looks like.. In January 2021 MetaMask users were sent warning concerning Address Poisoning and it seems fraudsters have been using this method since then in stealing cryptocurrencies form users wallets/accounts..

Conclusion

Cryptocurrency scams involving hacked vanity addresses are becoming increasingly common as fraudsters come up with different ways they can exploit unsuspecting victims’ funds for financial gain. It is important for crypto users and investors alike to stay vigilant and ensure that they protect themselves from such scams by not sharing sensitive information online or giving away access details for their wallets or accounts easily.

• Euler Finance recently had over $197 million worth of ether (ETH) and other crypto assets stolen from the DeFi protocol in a flash loan attack.
• The attacker has now started mixing the stolen tokens via Tornado Cash to obfuscate the trail.
• The Euler Foundation has set aside a $1 million reward bounty for anyone who provides information that could lead to an arrest of the hackers.

Euler Finance Hacked

Euler Finance, a decentralized finance lending and borrowing protocol powered by Ethereum, was victim to a flash loan attack resulting in over $197 million worth of ether (ETH) and other crypto assets being stolen.

Hacker Obfuscating Trail

The attacker has now begun laundering the stolen tokens via Tornado Cash in order to hide their tracks. Blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain also revealed that 100 ETH was transferred to an address handled by another hacker responsible for stealing 173,600 ETH and 25.5M USDC from Ronin Bridge.

$1 Million Bounty

In response to this theft, the Euler Foundation established a $1 million reward bounty for anyone who can provide valuable information leading to the arrest of these hackers.

Continued Threats To Crypto Space

Unfortunately, hacks and heists continue to plague the Web3 space with no permanent solution in sight yet. Last year alone saw over $3 billion lost to bad actors, with several DeFi protocols already losing millions so far this year as well.

Reward For Information Leading To Arrest Of Hackers

The Euler Foundation is offering a generous reward of one million dollars for any information leading to an arrest of these hackers as they attempt to launder their stolen tokens through Tornado Cash.

• Silicon Valley Bank’s parent company’s shares dropped dramatically, causing panic among traders.
• Hedge funds have recommended portfolio firms remove their cash from the bank and investigate opening multiple accounts.
• SVB is having difficulty providing banking services to cryptocurrency firms, leading them to look for other options.

Silicon Valley Bank Shares Plunge

Markets were sent crashing as Silicon Valley Bank failed to reassure customers of its financial state. The announcement followed a dramatic decrease in the shares of SVB Financial Group, the bank’s parent business, which plunged by more than 60%. This caused investors to sell their shares, resulting in a further 44% drop on March 10 pre-market trading.

Hedge Funds Urge Investors to Withdraw

Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Pantera Capital have both recommended that portfolio firms remove their cash from the failing Silicon Valley Bank and investigate opening several accounts instead. Furthermore, five anonymous venture capital investors in cryptocurrency have given similar advice to firms they have sponsored.

SVB Struggles with Crypto Firms

With the failure of cryptocurrency-friendly Silvergate Bank earlier this week, Silicon Valley Bank is having trouble at a time when cryptocurrency firms are already looking for other banking choices. Many users complained about difficulties logging into their accounts on Twitter, leading them to seek alternative banking solutions.

Silicon Valley Bank’s Customer Base

According to its website, Silicon Valley Bank has worked with more than 2,600 customers in the financial technology industry alone. As one of the go-to banks for venture-backed technology businesses located in the US, these difficulties could spell disaster for its customer base if not resolved quickly.

Crypto Markets Follow Stock Market Crash

The stock market crash has caused crypto markets to suffer too as venture capital investors urge companies associated with SVB Financial Group to remove their assets from the bank immediately. This suggests that crypto investors are increasingly worried about whether or not this failing institution will cause yet another collapse in crypto prices

• Binance is seeking a license to offer cryptocurrency services in Singapore for institutional clients.
• The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) published proposals in October 2022 to broaden its authority in order to better protect consumers’ interests in the cryptocurrency sector.
• Binance has provided feedback on the regulator’s proposals and recommended a few changes.

Binance Seeks Singapore License

Binance is seeking a license to offer cryptocurrency services in Singapore once more, focusing on providing custodial and other digital asset services to professional investors rather than retail investors. The world’s largest crypto exchange is planning for its custodial arm, Ceffu, to apply for a permit from the local financial regulator.

MAS Proposes Enhanced Consumer Protection

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) published proposals in October 2022 to broaden its authority in order to better protect consumers‘ interests in the cryptocurrency sector. MAS proposed a ban on the use of credit lines to purchase cryptocurrencies, as well as administering assessments for retail investors prior to trading virtual tokens.

Binance Provides Feedback

Binance provided feedback on the regulator’s proposals for enhanced consumer protection, recommending a few changes such as adopting a calibrated approach when it comes to protecting clients from the risks of unregulated leverage.

Increasing Regulatory Scrutiny

Increased scrutiny has raised concerns about Singapore’s ability remain an appealing location for digital assets at a time when other hubs like Hong Kong are attracting investment. Despite this, Binance appears committed valuing even limited commercial presence in Southeast Asia by investing efforts into securing its license despite regulatory scrutiny.

Conclusion

As one of Asia’s leading financial hubs with reputation for innovation and good corporate governance, Singapore remains attractive digital asset option for institutional investors seeking secure custodial and digital asset services. Nonetheless, increased regulation and regulations have been proposed by MAS that firms must comply with if they wish operate within city-state’s boundaries.

• Spotify is testing a new token-enabled playlist feature for NFT holders, accessible to Android users in the US, UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.
• Special playlists will be curated by Fluf, Moonbirds, Kingship and Overlord communities.
• The pilot is planned to last for three months during which exclusive playlists will be updated regularly.

Spotify Unveils New Token-Enabled Playlist

Online music streaming service Spotify has announced a pilot program to enable token-enabled playlists for users possessing Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). This trial run is currently only available to Android users in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.

Accessibility of Token-Enabled Playlist

The trial phase of this feature will last approximately three months during which the handpicked music in these special playlists will be continuously updated. Accessing these unique playlists requires linking their wallets with NFTs owned by members of four communities: Fluf, Moonbirds, Kingship and Overlord.

Overlord x Spotify Collaboration

Overlord web3 gaming and media universe has also announced that its Creepz NFT project holders can access a community-curated soundtrack named “Invasion” through connecting Web3 wallets with Spotify. Similarly Universal Music Group’s NFT band Kingship has created a token gated playlist featuring songs from renowned artists such as Queen , Missy Elliott , Snoop Dogg and Led Zeppelin.

Steps To Access Token Gated Playlist

Liquidity protocols‘ NFT lead developer Apoorv Lathey tweeted out a screenshot outlining step wise process on how users can access KingShip’s selected playlist on Spotify using Metamask wallet , Trust Wallet , Rainbow , Ledger Live or Zerion wallet .

Spotify Experimenting With NFTs?

When asked about this feature ,a representative from Spotify stated that they often experiment with different things in order to improve customer experience . But whether this would go on further or not remains yet to be seen .

• The phrase ‘to the moon’ is trending in the crypto and financial community, indicating that certain assets are good investments for the immediate future.
• Crypto analysts have shared their thoughts on which coins could moon, most of them related to meme coins.
• Altcoins mentioned as potentially headed ‚to the moon‘ include Blur, Floki, and Doge.

What Is ‘To The Moon’?

The phrase ‘to the moon’ has recently been trending on social networks such as Twitter and Reddit within the cryptocurrency community. This phrase is used to indicate that a particular asset is a good investment for the immediate future.

Which Altcoins Could Be Headed To The Moon?

Crypto analysts have shared their opinions on social networks concerning which coins could possibly head to the moon. Most of these mentions have been related to meme coins like Blur, Floki, and Doge.

Blur Token

The possibility of a vast increase in value was first noted by crypto analyst @cryptowoetoe who called for a clean breakout of $BLUR with initial selling pressure gone. His final tweet suggested that this coin could be headed much higher like some other #airdrops seen last year.

Floki Token

When Elon Musk tweeted about an image of a dog being appointed as Twitter’s new CEO, Floki saw its value surge by 40%. This led to many calling for it to head ‚#Flokitothemoon‘.

Dogecoin

Dogecoin has long been predicted by investors to hit the moon and Elon Musk’s tweet triggered more calls for it do so. Blockchain analysts have also been calling for DOGE to „moon“ in recent days.

• Blur NFT marketplace is outperforming OpenSea in terms of trading volume, despite having fewer traders.
• Blur currently accounts for 46% of the total weekly trading volume compared to OpenSea’s 36%.
• Despite being second in terms of trading volume, OpenSea leads the pack in number of weekly trades.

Blur Outperforming OpenSea in Trading Volume

The NFT marketplace Blur is outperforming OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace, by dominating the charts regarding NFT trading volume. As of writing this, Blur currently accounts for 46% of the total weekly trading volume compared to its biggest competitor OpenSea with only 36%.

Blur Bidding Pools Surge

Since raising 11 million dollars in its early stages of development, Blur’s bidding pools have skyrocketed to an all-time high of $42 million. On December 8th, a Twitter user encountered an issue with the platform’s new bidding system and was refunded 50% of their lost amount by Blur.

OpenSea Leading In Number Of Trades

Despite being second in terms of trading volume, OpenSea still leads other marketplaces in number of weekly trades with around 29,600 transactions as opposed to 12,601 on Blur platform.

Data From Dune Analytics

Data from Dune analytics depicts that daily trade activities on both platforms are as follows: roughly $14.3 million traded on the Blur platform and $11.3 million traded on the OpenSea platform.

Conclusion

Despite debuting just last October, it appears that Blur has taken over as the dominant player when it comes to NFT trade activities across all marketplaces. With its impressive performance and outstanding customer service solutions such as refunds for issues encountered utilizing their system; it looks like they are here to stay!

• Tesla reported a $204 million loss from its bitcoin holdings in 2022 despite making a $64 million profit from trading activities.
• Tesla purchased $1.5 billion worth of BTC in early February 2021 and announced the sale of 75% worth of bitcoin in July last year due to the lockdown situation in China.
• Elon Musk has shown great influence in the crypto world as an avid enthusiast for cryptocurrencies, showing interest in bitcoin and dogecoin and causing significant surges with his tweets.

Tesla’s Loss From Bitcoin Holdings

According to a U.S. Security and Exchange Commission filing, Tesla made a $204 million loss in gross impairment in 2022 for its bitcoin holdings despite seeing some profits from trading bitcoin. The car manufacturer had purchased $1.5 billion worth of BTC in early February 2021 before announcing the sale of 75% worth of it due to the lockdown situation in China at that time. Despite this, Elon Musk assured that Tesla still holds no hostile view against bitcoin and is open to expanding its holdings further.

Profits From Crypto Trading Activities

Despite recording a $204 million loss, Tesla was able to make a $64 million profit from converging its bitcoin holdings into fiat currencies last year by Q4 2022 when Elon refused to liquidate the remaining stockpile and continued HODLing instead. This led to some net losses for Tesla which added up to around $140 million due to their crypto trading activities during the same period.

Elon Musk’s Influence on Crypto Prices

Elon Musk’s influence on cryptocurrency prices has been quite remarkable lately as he explores new social media payment methods with Dogecoin resulting in a 6% spike of its token price although yet unable to break through resistance levels significantly yet. His mid-last year tweet stating that Tesla would not accept BTC payments also resulted into a Bitcoin price drop from $54,800 -$45,700 within minutes after it was sent out into cyberspace.

Musk’s Passion For Cryptocurrency

It is evident that Elon Musk has taken quite an interest into cryptocurrency since his involvement with it began by becoming one of the most influential figures within this industry despite having no prior knowledge on how it worked initially but quickly adapting and learning how it works now seemingly like second nature being involved with such projects as Bitcoin, Dogecoin and others alike while also pushing forth new innovations such as allowing people to buy cars using cryptocurrency at certain locations etcetera doing what he can do help promote blockchain technology further..

Conclusion

Overall, Tesla recorded a major loss due to their investments into Bitcoin but were still able to gain some profits from converting them back into fiat currencies during their crypto trading activities later on throughout the year while also being heavily influenced by Elon Musk who himself has shown great passion for cryptocurrency being involved with various projects such as Bitcoin ad Dogecoin which have seen surges due largely because of him pushing them forward through social media platforms such as Twitter etcetera helping push forth blockchain technology even further than ever before now more than ever!

• El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele berated biased media outlets who predicted the country would face debt defaults due to losses from the crypto winter.
• Bukele pointed out that El Salvador successfully repaid its $800 million dollar bond without any external aid.
• Bukele has been a vocal advocate for the use of bitcoin and has been promoting it as a solution to the country’s economic challenges.

The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, recently spoke out against media outlets that have perpetuated biased and inaccurate reports about the country’s financial situation. In a tweet on January 24, 2023, Bukele highlighted the success of El Salvador in repaying its $800 million dollar bond without any external aid, despite the negative predictions of some media outlets. This news comes at a time when El Salvador has been at the center of global attention since it became the first country to make bitcoin legal tender in 2021.

Bukele has been a vocal advocate for the use of bitcoin and has been promoting it as a solution to the country’s economic challenges. He believes that the digital currency has the potential to attract investment and create new opportunities for El Salvador. Additionally, Bukele has pointed out that the crypto winter that led to the decline in bitcoin price made media outlets predict debt defaults and financial doldrums for El Salvador’s Economy.

In his tweet, Bukele noted the lack of coverage of the successful payment of the bond, and he expressed his frustration at the legacy media outlets for their biased disposition towards the country. He accused them of “lying and lying and lying” and then going silent when their lies were exposed. Bukele also encouraged citizens of El Salvador to embrace bitcoin, claiming that it is a “powerful tool” that can help the country’s economic development.

The president of El Salvador has made his stance clear: that media outlets should not be so quick to make baseless predictions about the country’s financial situation. His advocacy for the use of bitcoin and other digital currencies is also an indication of his commitment to creating a better future for El Salvador and its citizens.

•Tether (USDT), the dominant stablecoin, has surpassed payment operators Mastercard and Visa in transaction volume processed in 2022.
•The data, sourced from CoinGecko and Mastercard and Visa’s respective websites, indicates that the use of stablecoins is on the rise.
•Despite the overall challenges faced by the cryptocurrency market in 2022, the increasing use of stablecoins highlights the continuous growth of the blockchain industry.

The rise of stablecoins in the blockchain industry has been a remarkable story. In 2022, Tether (USDT), the dominant stablecoin, has surpassed payment operators Mastercard and Visa in transaction volume processed. This news, sourced from CoinGecko and Mastercard and Visa’s respective websites, indicates that the use of stablecoins is on the rise and highlights the continuous growth of the blockchain industry.

USDT handled around $18.2 trillion worth of transactions in 2022, while Mastercard processed $14.1 trillion and Visa processed $7.7 trillion. This impressive milestone was met with mixed reactions on Twitter, with some pointing to „fake volume“ and „wash trading“ to dismiss the validity of the data. Many users in the cryptosphere distrust tether, citing a lack of transparency in the company’s operations. The company is responsible for regularly issuing large sums of money on the blockchain, with many accusing it of printing money at will.

Despite these concerns, the increasing use of stablecoins highlights the immense potential of blockchain technology and its ability to provide users with improved speed and privacy. Furthermore, the increasing use of stablecoins could help to drive further adoption of cryptocurrencies, as it provides users with an easier entry point into the industry.

The rise of stablecoins is a positive development for the blockchain industry, and it will be interesting to see how it continues to progress over the coming years. With the increasing popularity of stablecoins, more companies and users may be enticed to join the blockchain revolution, allowing the industry to reach new heights.