Safeheron Weekly Dispatch | AUG 19 '22

08/19/2022

Security Incidents

Stader’s NearX Smart Contract Was Exploited

The attacker exploited vulnerability on NearX and minted 20 Mn $NearX by transferring $NearX to his/her own address in a loop without any corresponding $NEAR staked against it. The team fixed the issue and protected most of the user’s funds with an estimation of a loss of 165,000 $NEAR.

Polkadot Ecological Project Acala Suffered From An Error, Attackers Minted 1.2 Billion aUSD

The error on the chain caused aUSD to lose its peg to the US dollar, initially falling to $0.60 and hovering around $0.90. Acala suspended the protocol shortly after the attack and disabled the transfer of the stolen aUSD and the attackers exchanging Acala tokens for some of the aUSD.

cBridge's Frontend Suffered From DNS Cache Poisoning Attack

This attack targeted third-party DNS providers. Celer's own contract was not affected.

Industry Updates

Safeheron

Safeheron Announces US$7M Series Pre-A Raise

Safeheron is announcing US$7M in Pre-A funding co-led by Yunqi Partners and Web3Vision, with participation from PrimeBlock Ventures, Cobo Ventures, M77 Ventures, ShataCapital, Kryptos, Antalpha Ventures, Waterdrip Capital, 7 O’CLOCK CAPITAL and Fan Zhang, the former co-founder of Sequoia Capital China. Learn More

Safeheron Partners with MetaMask on MPC Security Solution

Safeheron announced the strategic partnership with MetaMask to integrate enterprise-grade MPC multisignature security solutions through devices and applications supporting like MetaMask Snaps, MetaMask’s browser extension, MetaMask mobile, and the Keystone hardware wallet. Learn More

Copper

Copper to Connect to Solana for DeFi Access

Copper will support decentralized finance (DeFi) connectivity with the Solana blockchain. Copper’s customers will connect with dapps and enables them to transact securely using the firm’s CopperConnect multi-party computation (MPC) technology.

BitGo

Galaxy Digital Announces Termination of BitGo Acquisition

Galaxy Digital has exercised its right to terminate its previously announced acquisition agreement with BitGo. After this announcing, BitGo attracted an all-cash offer that exceeded the value of the now-terminated deal with Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital Holdings, and at proper timing, BitGo may choose IPO.

Hippo Financial Services

Gate.io's Hippo Financial Services Obtains Hong Kong Crypto Custody License

Gate.io's Hippo Financial Services has been granted a license to offer virtual asset custodial services in Hong Kong, and the industry-leading regulatory regime of Hong Kong provides additional confidence for investors that place assets in Hippo FS's custody.

NewsFlash

• Cross-chain protocol for stablecoin Meson has raised a $4 million funding round.

• NFT fractionalization platform Tessera raises $20M Series A.

• Web3 identity protocol .bit raises $13M Series A funding.

• Solana Web3 mobile Sage developer beta DVT-1 is available for preorder.

• Emirates NBD has launched a 10-week global accelerator program for startups with a focus on metaverse technologies.

• Meta launches Horizon Worlds in France and Spain.

• Polygon open sourced zero-knowledge proving system Plonky2.

• Philippines’ Unionbank to support cryptocurrency exchange via mobile app.

Market Regulation

North America

• Canadian banks and insurers must limit their exposure to crypto assets to a small fraction of their capital under new interim rules from the country’s financial regulator.

• Canadian regulatory body allows Crypto.com pre-registration for operations in Canada.

Europe

• Crypto.com exchange registers with UK financial regulator.

• Socios.com regulatory approval as a service provider of virtual currencies and digital wallets for its fan engagement and rewards platform in Italy.

• Crypto exchange Coinify obtains regulatory approval to operate in Italy.

• Digital bank Revolut gets approval to offer crypto services throughout Europe.

• The EU is on the verge of creating a new AML regulator that will oversee crypto.

Asia

• Authorities in South Korea are cracking down on 16 crypto exchanges allegedly operating in the country without registration.

• Binance secures preliminary regulatory approval to operate in Kazakhstan.

Oceania

• Australian asset manager Monochrome Asset Management has landed the country’s first Australian financial services license (AFSL) for a spot crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Industry Briefing

It's honored for Safeheron to announce TWO milestones in 2022: US$7M Series Pre-A raise and a strategic partnership with MetaMask. In a bear crypto market where all are quite mentally intense, we see that security is getting more and more attention, along with crypto regulations enhancing or exploring new ways & new fields. In a market growing to be regulated, it's thrilling to be in all the innovations and communications.

Overall, criminal activity appears to be more resilient in the face of price declines: Illicit volumes are down just 15% year over year, compared to 36% for legitimate volumes. One type of crime type that’s fallen in 2022 is scams. Total scam revenue for 2022 currently sits at $1.6Bn, 65% lower than it was through the end of July in 2021. The stolen amount in hacking is $1.9Bn, compared to less than $1.2Bn in 2021.