BitMEX Research has identified a suspected double-spend transaction valued at 0.00062063 BTC or roughly $21 — and it doesn’t appear to be an instance of that popular replace-by-fee wallet hack. On Jan. 20, BitMEX’s ForkMonitor noted that “multiple blocks were produced at height 666833.” BitMEX Research tweeted: [1/2] There was a stale Bitcoin block today, at height 666,833. SlushPool has beaten F2Pool in a race. It appears as if a small double spend of around 0.00062063 BTC ($21) was detectedhttps://t.co/o8lz9xagYG pic.twitter.com/IEdPu8JEjt — BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) January 20, 2021 One hour later, BitMEX Research attributed the orphaned block to an RBF …

Multiple decentralized finance (DeFi) projects are moving forward with plans to allow liquidity provider tokens as collateral for stablecoin and lending services — though experts caution that the security considerations associated with using LP tokens in this manner can be complex. LP tokens are distributed to liquidity providers on automated market makers (AMMs) to represent a provider’s stake in a liquidity pool. Providers are incentivized with trading and protocol fees that are paid out upon withdrawal. While they’re often the last stop in a cycle of yield farming transactions, multiple DeFi platforms are now considering using them as collateral, including …

Researchers wishing to apply to New York-based Red Balloon Security have to complete an unusual technical interview as part of their application process: unlocking a hard drive containing crypto. According to a report from Business Insider, Red Balloon sends the hard drives to certain candidates for cybersecurity research positions at the firm. Anyone who has the “the skills and passion” to crack the encryption would be able to claim 0.1337 Bitcoin (BTC), or roughly $4,800 at the time of publication. Applicants who are able to access the coins are told to purchase a ticket to New York City for the …

On June 25, 2020, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission brought suit in the Northern District of California against NAC Foundation LLC, also known as the NationalAtenCoin Foundation, and Rowland Marcus Andrade, the company’s CEO, alleging that the company had violated the federal securities laws by selling an unregistered, pre-functional version of an “Anti-Money Laundering BitCoin” token, to be known as AML BitCoin. Unlike some of the other recent high-profile decisions applying the Howey Test, such as SEC vs. Telegram and SEC vs. Kik, the NAC lawsuit involved detailed allegations of fraud in connection with the sale of pre-functional …

Ledger users are receiving threatening emails in the wake of the hardware wallet manufacturer reporting that 20,000 more of its customers have been affected by another massive data breach. One or more extortionists using the names Darrin Burlew and Denni Hornig have reportedly sent emails to users who say their personal information was released as a result of the data breach at Ledger in June and July of last year. Reddit user Crypthomie, a former flight attendant based in the United Arab Emirates, said his Ledger owning father received a message today. The email included his name, home address, and …

A German-born programmer in San Francisco has now used up eight of 10 password attempts he has to unlock the hard drive containing the private keys to his Bitcoin wallet, which contains 7,002 Bitcoin (BTC). As of press time, those holdings would be worth $268 million — that is, if only they were accessible. As a New York Times profile on Jan. 12 outlined, Stefan Thomas uses a hard drive called an IronKey, but lost the paper on which he wrote down the password for the device "years ago." If Thomas fails to remember it, 10 failed guesses will result …

Cryptocurrency hardware wallet manufacturer Ngrave released the initial results of its ongoing crypto security survey on Wednesday. The results give a number of insights into the current state of security in the digital-asset space and show that a full quarter of users perceive their current security measures to be more effective than they actually are. The survey has so far been completed by over 1,400 crypto users from 78 countries around the world. Despite efforts to push for inclusion in the space, 90% of respondents were male, and over 60% fell within the 25–45 age bracket. Of those surveyed, 62% …

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has revealed the firm unsuccessfully attempted to settle its securities violation lawsuit with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and slammed the “regulatory chaos” around cryptocurrencies. I’m not going to litigate the SEC’s unproven allegations on Twitter, and as you can imagine, there are new considerations to what can / should be said publicly after the litigation process starts. However, I would like to address 5 key questions I’ve seen. 1/10 — Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 7, 2021 In a Twitter thread addressing what he described as “5 key questions,” the CEO strongly denied the …

Wallets holding oversized XRP positions are plunging quickly in the wake of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Ripple. Industry data reveals just how quickly these so-called XRP whales are sinking. Coin Metrics, a leading data provider on all things cryptocurrency and blockchain, estimated that the number of wallet addresses holding at least 1 million XRP has dropped to 1,567 from 1,721 between Dec. 21, 2020 and Jan. 3. In other words, it appears that XRP whales are liquidating a portion of their holdings amid regulatory uncertainty surrounding Ripple. As the following chart from Coin Metrics illustrates, …

Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest cryptocurrency asset manager, announced Tuesday that it has liquidated its XRP holdings and used the remaining funds to buy up more Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Litecoin (LTC). The decision affects Grayscale’s Digital Large Cap Fund, a market-cap-weighted asset that provides exposure to the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. The sale of XRP occurred on Monday, less than a week after Genesis Global Trading, the fund’s authorized participant, announced it would soon temporarily suspend XRP trading, likely in relation to the lawsuit filed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission against Ripple. Genesis …

Litecoin (LTC) and XRP briefly traded places in market capitalization rankings over the weekend, highlighting the impact of the recent lawsuit against Ripple filed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The so-called “flippening” happened early Sunday when Litecoin’s market cap hit $9.95 billion following a more than 12% surge in price. XRP, meanwhile, had declined in excess of 25% over a 24-hour trading period. LITECOIN JUST FLIPPED XRP pic.twitter.com/yjBq15JtpV — HODLGeorge (@BitfuryGeorge) January 3, 2021 At press time, XRP was back in the fourth position with a market cap of $10.5 billion. Litecoin, meanwhile, was worth just over …

Several investors in XRP have filed with a Rhode Island court, looking to change the course of the Securities and Exchange Commission's case against Ripple. In response to what it calls "the most significant SEC enforcement action in modern history," the Friday filing is a petition for a "writ of mandamous." A "mandamus" is effectively just an order that a public official — in this case, the chairman of the SEC — does their job. The filers are calling upon new Acting Chairman Elad Roisman to alter the course that his predecessor, Jay Clayton, set by beginning enforcement against Ripple …