On Dec. 26, blockchain security firm CertiK issued a warning alleging that Defrost Finance, a decentralized leveraged trading platform on the Avalanche Blockchain, is an "Exit Scam." In supporting the decision, CertiK wrote: "On 24 December we have seen an #exitscam on @Defrost_Finance. We have attempted to contact multiple members of the team but have had no response. The team are not KYC'd but we are using all the information that we do have to assist with authorities." The prior day, Defrost Finance suffered a flash loan attack that drained protocol users of $12 million in assets. Immediately after the …

Traders looking forward to a rally during Christmas were disappointed as the markets turned out to be steady as many celebrated the holidays. Crypto community members expressed their disappointment by sharing memes, with some even employing their creativity through poetry. On Dec. 23, Data tracker Coinstats shared an image showing positive market movements and floating the idea of a potential “Santa Claus rally.” Is that the beginning of the Santa Claus Rally? pic.twitter.com/zf1WDNaGpm — CoinStats (@CoinStats) December 23, 2022 However, with Bitcoin’s volatility index hitting record lows on Dec. 25, any thoughts of having a merry BTC rally on Christmas …

While many are still enjoying the holiday season, hackers are hard at work, draining around $8 million in an ongoing BitKeep wallet exploit. On Dec. 26, some users of the multichain crypto wallet BitKeep reported that their funds were being drained and transferred while they were not using their wallets. In their official Telegram group, the BitKeep team confirmed that some APK package downloads have been hijacked by some attackers and have been installed with code that was implanted by hackers. They wrote: “If your funds are stolen, the application you download or update may be an unknown version (unofficial …

Despite an eventful year fraught with crypto collapses and price drops, Steven Goulden, a senior research analyst at crypto trading firm Cumberland has pointed to several “green shoots” to break the surface in crypto in 2023. In a 14-page “Year in Review” report released on Dec. 24, Goulden said he saw four “emerging narratives” in 2023 that will lead to “significant progress” for crypto over the next six to 24 months. These include non-fungible tokens (NFTs) becoming a “go-to method” of tokenizing a brand's intellectual property (IP), Web3 apps and games becoming “genuinely popular,” while Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) …

A particular topic of interest in the blockchain space is the emergence of blockchain-related projects in the domain name system (DNS) and domain ecosystem. Handshake, in particular, has been gaining attention among decentralized technology enthusiasts for its potential to revolutionize how people think about and interact with domains, especially in the context of Web3. What is a handshake (HNS) domain? Handshake (HNS) is a decentralized, permissionless naming protocol that allows for peer-to-peer communication and provides an accessible alternative to centrally managed domain names, such as .com, country-code domains and other generic domains. As a decentralized peer-to-peer domain naming protocol, Handshake …

From Terra to FTX, 2022 has given us many weird crypto stories. While investors have been enduring a bear market that saw the crypto industry sink below the $1 trillion market capitalization mark, adoption in the space has been growing, and old mysteries were finally solved. From the incredible short squeeze of a bankrupt company’s token to old anti-crypto arguments used by a major central bank, we’re getting weird with five stories the best fiction writers couldn’t dream up. “Comedic rapper” charged over Bitfinex hack Back in 2016, popular cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex suffered a major security breach that saw attackers …

Security has been a critical challenge for decentralized finance (DeFi) and its evolution. Between 2020 and 2022, hackers stole over $2.5 billion through vulnerabilities on cross-chain bridges, Token Terminal data shows. Compared to other security breaches, this is a substantial amount. Issues with bridges have a root cause: All of them have an "inherent vulnerability," Theo Gauthier, founder and CEO of Toposware, told Cointelegraph. According to Gauthier, no matter how secure a bridge is on its own, it is "entirely reliant on the security of the chains it connects," meaning that any breach or bug within one of the two …

Wrapped XRP (wXRP) is a crypto asset pegged to XRP (XRP) and can be used on blockchains other than Ripple’s native XRP Ledger. Ripple is a blockchain-based global payments system providing crypto solutions for businesses, and XRP is the native currency of the Ripple network. Identical in value, its wrapped version, wXRP, can be used in financial payments and settlements on other blockchains. This article will discuss why we need wXRP, how to buy wXRP, use cases of wXRP, and the purpose and safety of wXRP tokens. What are wrapped cryptocurrencies? Wrapped cryptocurrencies are tokens that are used as cryptocurrencies …

While 2022 has been a year to forget for most crypto investors, the daunting task of filing crypto tax returns before the end of December remains. Many investors worry about unrealized losses on their crypto portfolio, while a failure to report crypto assets and transactions on tax returns could land North American investors into hot water with the IRS. To aid in filing your crypto taxes, cryptocurrency portfolio tracking and tax platform Accointing by Glassnode offers an easy solution to instantly import and review all crypto transactions and fill your crypto taxes in just a couple of clicks. What is …

A senior official from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has warned investors to be “very wary” about relying on a crypto company’s “proof-of-reserves.” “We’re warning investors to be very wary of some of the claims that are being made by crypto companies,” said SEC’s acting chief accountant Paul Munter in a Dec. 22 interview with The Wall Street Journal. A number of crypto firms have commissioned “proof-of-reserves” audits since the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, aiming to quell concerns over their own exchange’s financial soundness. However, Munter said the results of these audits isn’t necessarily an indicator that …

2022 saw the continued advancement of green crypto projects as more industry companies focused on sustainability to reduce carbon emissions. A series of elemental forces drove the paradigm shift, including user demands for faster and more energy-efficient blockchains, growing climate change awareness among investors, and rising government concerns about energy consumption in the crypto sector. Among the most notable eco-friendly crypto developments in 2022 was the transition of the Ethereum blockchain from a proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus layer. The Merge, completed in September, joined the original execution layer of Ethereum with its new PoS consensus layer, the Beacon …

According to a new press report published by South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS), North Korean hackers have stolen more than 800 billion Korean won ($620 million) worth of cryptocurrencies from decentralized finance, or DeFi, platforms this year. The agency also revealed it blocked a daily average of 1.18 million attackers perpetrated by national and international hacking organizations in November. However, a NIS spokesperson revealed via local news outlet Kyunghyang Shinmun that all of the $620 million stolen by North Korean hackers through DeFi exploits occurred overseas, adding: "In Korea, virtual asset transactions have been switched to real-name transactions and …