The Weekly Crypto Digest: Ronin’s hack, Biden on cybercrime and more
Second Biggest crypto hack takes place on Ronin
Over $622 million of Ethereum and USD coin was stolen in a hack on NFT gaming blockchain Ronin last Tuesday, becoming one of the largest crypto heists on record. The compromised blockchain platform supports the popular NFT-based game, Axie Infinity.
According to reports, the hacker leveraged hacked private keys to forge two large fake withdrawals that absorbed hundreds of millions from the bridge. Ronin’s community alert post on Twitter read: “The attacker managed to get control over Sky Mavis’s four Ronin Validators and a third-party validator run by Axie DAO.”
The only heist that has been larger (to date) was also around $600 million, and that occurred last year in August when Poly Network was attacked.
Expected UK crypto regulation
The United Kingdom is expected to announce new a regulations framework for cryptocurrency in the coming weeks. Sources close to the British Finance Minister spoke with CNBC, they believe the announcements will focus on stablecoins, and that the government has been in discussions with crypto firms including the Gemini exchange.
If the sources are to be believed, the regulations are favourable to the industry, and UK government officials allegedly show a willingness to understand the complex cryptocurrency market.
Biden expands cybercrime budget to include crypto
US President Joe Biden released his 2023 budget proposal early last week with mentions of modernising crypto rules to generate an additional $11 billion in revenues by 2032, as well as the expansion of the Department of Justice’s powers to counter cyber threats that involve ransomware and the use of cryptocurrencies.
The proposal also seeks to expand the DOJ’s budget by $52 million for “more agents, enhanced response capabilities, and strengthened intelligence collection and analysis capabilities” and noted that “These investments are in line with the Administration’s counter-ransomware strategy that emphasizes disruptive activity and combating the misuse of cryptocurrency.”
Will Smith Meme Token goes bust
Mere hours after the physical altercation between Actor Will Smith and Comedian Chris Rock which took place at the Oscar’s ceremony last week, a new meme token dubbed ‘Will Smith Inu’ was born into the crypto sphere. The Ethereum-based token was up over 1,000 per cent the day following the incident, though it has not been associated with Smith or the Oscars. Since then, the coin’s value has fallen more than 80 per cent.
