BlockchainReporter Weekly News Review: Security Breaches and Regulatory Wins

This week, the crypto landscape saw major developments in security, regulation, and investment. The most shocking news of the week came just at the end of the week. Bybit suffered a $1.4 billion Ethereum hack, raising concerns over exchange vulnerabilities. Meanwhile, the SEC’s dropped lawsuit against Coinbase, a big win for the crypto industry.

Milei, the Argentina President, has been in focus over a crypto scam, while OKX Ventures invested in another crypto blockchain innovation, Cygnus Finance. MetaMask and Ledger also collaborated on security enhancements, along with MicroStrategy pause on Bitcoin purchases, which could be a strategic change.

Bybit Hack: $1.4 Billion in Ethereum Stolen

Bybit suffered a major security breach on 21^st of January, losing about $1.4 billion in Ethereum-based tokens. This led to a market response and Ethereum’s price tumbled 2% to $2,685 and Bitcoin shed over 1% to $96,632.

Ben Zhou, Bybit CEO, confirmed the hackers took advantage of the planned transfer to a wallet of the attackers. Bybit eth cold wallet was tricked into changing the smart contract of the Bybit eth cold wallet by changing the system to approve the transaction. As a result, they gained control of the wallet, and could withdraw the funds.

The stolen assets were then moved to an unknown address suspected to belong notorious Lazarus Group. The incident has been investigated by Bybit and the platform being secured. As the exchange attempts recovery from losses, users are advised to be cautious.

SEC Drops Lawsuit Against Coinbase, Crypto Industry Wins

This is a major victory for crypto industry as the U.S. SEC decides to drop its lawsuit against Coinbase. Coinbase as well as cryptocurrency supporters get relief from this decision, which is yet to be approved. In 2021, the SEC had already authorized Coinbase to become a public company but then sued to challenge regulatory inconsistencies.

Most of the people still think, its not regarding what Coinbase did, its simply because there was a change on the SEC leadership. This is a case of regulators against the crypto sector. The legal battle comes to an end while the decision could affect future regulatory ways of dealing with digital assets.

Argentine President Milei Under Investigation for Crypto Scandal

Two cryptocurrency businessmen and Argentine president Javier Milei are under investigation for being involved in the scandal dubbed $LIBRA, Argentine prosecutor Eduardo Taiano has launched.

But on February 14, Milei pushed $LIBRA on social media with a reference to a private project called ‘Viva La Libertad’ that said it would help Argentine small businesses. But he wiped the post within hours.

After endorsing, LIBRA’s price rose before collapsing. Consequently, the withdrawal of $100 million from developers allegedly created a pump and dump scheme and suspicious insider trading concerns.

Later Milei said he was unaware of details of the project. The critics are said to argue it looks too timed and they argue there must have been prior coordination. The probe aims to establish whether the president had something to do with market manipulation.

Cygnus Finance Secures Pre-Seed Funding from OKX Ventures

Crypto exchange OKX’s investment arm, OKX Ventures, has participated as a participant in Cygnus Finance’s pre-seed investment. This shows OKX Ventures’ trust in Cygnus Finance’s ability to connect Web3 and Web2 with innovative solutions for the creator economy.

It is well known that Cygnus Finance has a great restaking infrastructure. As a modular real yield layer, it serves as a simple mechanism for blockchains to update restaking networks while still having security in shared.

OKX Ventures has deliberately picked Cygnus Finance for investment as it will lend its support to its push for setting new heights in blockchain security and the creator economy. With this investment blockchain scalability and innovation would become driven in the long run.

MetaMask and Ledger Partner to Improve Crypto Security

Leading hardware wallet provider Ledger has teamed up with a prominent crypto wallet provider MetaMask to improve user security with Clear Signing. This new feature guarantees the user before approving any transaction first see and understand what all is happening.

The aim is to stop so-called ‘blind signing,’ where the users facilitate transactions blindly, as if they signing a blank check. The reason that about $3.7 billion was stolen in total in 2022 is due to blind signing.

MetaMask and Ledger intends with Clear Signing to make the the process more transparent to reduce the risk of fraud, unauthorized asset transfer. It is a partnership that would both strengthen the security of the crypto space and ensure it provides users with more of that protection as they send digital transactions.

MicroStrategy Pauses Bitcoin Purchases

The largest corporate Bitcoin holder, MicroStrategy (now Strategy) stated that it did not buy any Bitcoin last week. This is a rare and surprising turn of events when Strategy didn’t purchase BTC. Michael Saylor, Chairman, confirmed that the number of the company’s total Bitcoin holdings remains at 478,740 BTC. Bought for some $31.1 billion on average for an amount of $65,033 per Bitcoin.

He said MicroStrategy did not sell additional Class A shares or add any more bitcoin to its balance sheet. However, this news comes just a week after the company made a large Bitcoin purchase. The decision to pause buying can be viewed as a temporary strategy change while monitoring market conditions.

Conclusion

This week crypto again presents on both sides of the security and regulatory lines. $1.4 billion hack gives cause for concern over exchange vulnerabilities, and MetaMask and Ledger partner to enhance security. The win for the crypto industry is the fact Southeastern’s dropped lawsuit against Coinbase, and the pause in MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin purchases is a strategic move. Argentina’s President Milei is also under the spotlight for a crypto scandal, while OKX Ventures supports Cygnus Finance in securing blockchain innovation.