Author: Chris Lion

Shakeeb Ahmed used his skills in reverse engineering smart contracts and blockchain audits for exploitation. 

A former security engineer, Shakeeb Ahmed, has been sentenced to three years in prison for hacking into two decentralized crypto exchanges (DEXs) and stealing crypto assets worth over $12 million. The sentence marks the first-ever U.S. conviction for hacking a smart contract.

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the sentence, and U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero passed judgment. 

According to court documents, Ahmed used an advanced hacking strategy to exploit vulnerabilities in the exchange’s security systems, allowing unauthorized access to sensitive user data and digital assets. 

On July 2 and 3, 2022, the former security office used fake pricing data to generate roughly $9 million worth of inflated fees, then withdrew the fees as crypto. After stealing the fees, he contacted the crypto exchange, in which he agreed to return all the stolen funds except for $1.5 million only if the crypto exchange decided not to report the attack to authorities.   

Nirvana Fund Launder

On July 28, 2022, Ahmend attacked a second DEX called “Nirvana” Finance. The ex-security officer used an exploit he discovered in Nirvana’s smart contracts to enable him to buy digital assets at a lower price than the contract initially was designed to permit.   

After the exploit, Nirvana offered Ahmed a whopping $600,000 in exchange for returning the stolen funds. Still, he demanded $1.4 million instead, resulting in $3.6 million in stolen funds belonging to the exchange. As a result of the attack, Nirvana shortly shut down.   

Additionally, Ahmed used the funds he laundered from the crypto exchange and Nirvana to hide their sources and ownership, using advanced techniques such as token-swap transactions.  

Hiding the Money

Subsequently, he divided fraud proceeds from Solana and Ethereum blockchains, in which he exchanged fraud proceeds into Monero, an anonymized cryptocurrency that is difficult to trace.  

At the time of the attack, Ahmed was a senior security engineer for an international technology firm. He was skilled in reverse engineering smart contracts and blockchain audits, which he used to execute the hacks. 

The case is being prosecuted by the office’s Illicit Finance and Money Laundering Unit and Complex Fraud and Cyber Unit.

A crypto trader who invested $9K in an Ethereum (ETH) memecoin Apu Apustaja (APU) is now 693x richer in just one month after the token’s price blew off the roof.  

The trader, who wishes to remain anonymous, made a courageous move in the midst of the crypto craze by investing in the memecoin, while other investors were building around established digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

APU token witnessed a remarkable surge in its price on April 11, propelling its market capitalization to nearly $200 million. 

Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain identified a trader’s move to invest in the memecoin before the recent price action.   

The Transactions

On March 11, the trader executed four transactions, which accumulated approximately 8 billion APU tokens. Additionally, the crypto trader acquired another 300 million token through two separate purchases, one on March 13 and another on 24 on the same month. 

The trader spent a total of 2.38 ETH, now worth approximately $8,300, on the memecoin. On April 11, the token saw an increase, reaching a high of  $0.0007907, valued at approximately $6.5 million.    

On April 12, the trader made six different transactions, transferring the funds to a separate crypto wallet, which could mean that the trader intended to move the assets to another wallet or has decided to sell the tokens through a peer-to-peer (P2P) transaction.  

Some community members shared their speculations regarding the situation. An X user commended the asset-holder for still “holding,” while another user assumed the crypto wallet could belong to a developer.  

Memecoin Millionaires 

Meanwhile, On March 14, another trader purchased approximately 170 million Book of Meme (BOME) tokens, only to sell them for $131,000 before the price surged upward on the following day. The trader lost out on a potential $2 million gain based on the current market prices.  

Interestingly, another memecoin trader gained from the frenzy, turning an initial investment of $13,000 into a whopping $2 million within just one hour. On April 3, the trader discovered a memecoin called Donotfomoew (MOEW) as it launched on decentralized exchanges (DEXs).   

The trader spent a total of 4 ETH ($13,000) to purchase about 500 million MOEW, which became worth nearly $2 million after just an hour.

Chinese police have apprehended the core development team behind the decentralized storage network Filecoin (FIL)  following the transfer of $22 million worth of FIL tokens to an unknown external address.  

The Filecoin Staking Protocol is a decentralized network that encourages users to store and retrieve data using, its native asset FIL. It was launched on July 15, 2014, and has gained significant support in over the years.    

Legal Representative to Help Team Members

According to a post on the X platform, the STFIL team announced that legal representatives have been hired to help the detained individuals. The post also revealed that the core technical team has been in detention since the first week of April. 

The detained individuals, whose identities have not been disclosed publicly, are being scrutinized for their potential involvement in the incident.   

Furthermore, the team highlighted unexpected and unplanned protocol upgrades that have occurred in recent days. The transfer funds were directed to the following address: f410falck3ysg7e2k4outtq2r24ytd66cuddydnoga6a. 

Upon uncovering the unauthorized transfer of FIL tokens, the STFIL team is actively investigating ways to trace the unknown address and protect stakeholder interests.    

Following the incident, investors and stakeholders are closely monitoring developments as they await further updates from Filecoin’s team and regulatory authorities. 

Filecoin’s CEO, Juan Benet, has reassured users that their assets are protected and has pledged to work tirelessly to resolve the situation. 

Users Question Incident Timing.

In response to the STFIL team’s appeal for assistance, some users offered to provide police contacts, while others raised doubts regarding the timing of the incident. Some individuals speculated that it might have been an inside job or a deliberate “rug pull.”   

One user suggested the unknown attackers responsible for the action may have taken control of the STFIL contract. 

“STFIL’s contract control was ‘stolen.’ Contract attackers are destroying and modifying contracts in an attempt to steal assets. The situation is very critical! We implore Filecoin Governance, Filecoin Foundation, and Protocol Labs to help resolve the issue and protect the communities,” the user stated.     

According to CryptocurrenciesToWatch, FIL currently has a market cap of $4.43 billion and a live price of $8.

OKX, one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges, has announced it will list Tensor (TNSR) in its trading platform alongside the TNSR/USDT trading pair, offering users an additional option for trading and investment in the crypto market. 

What is Tensor (TNSR)?

Tensor Protocol is a smart contract autonomous protocol based on the Solana blockchain. The project brands itself as “the Blur of Solana.” The team received $3 million in seed round financing led by the Placeholder. Investors in the seed round include Solana Ventures, Alliance DAO, Big Brain Holdings, and Solana co-founders Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal.  

OKX’s decision to list TNSR shows the exchange’s commitment to providing its users access to various digital assets. The platform has been actively expanding its offerings and services to meet the needs of crypto enthusiasts and investors worldwide.

OKX’s objective is to enable decentralized machine learning and artificial intelligence applications, which makes it a compelling addition to the firm’s lineup of supported tokens.

The exchange also noted that TNSR deposits will begin at 04:00 UTC on April 8, 2024, and TNSR/USDT spot trading will begin at 15.15 UTC on the same day and month. OKX added that TNSR withdrawals will begin at 15.15 UTC on April 9, 2024.   

Coinbase Adds for TNSR to Listing Plan

Meanwhile, crypto exchange Coinbase announced via the social media platform X that it’s adding TNSR to its listing roadmap.  

“It’s kind of like Amazon or something like that, where a product might have three stars, or it might have five stars, but if it starts to get one star consistently, it’s probably fraudulent or defective or something, and maybe Amazon will remove it. Otherwise, you want to let the market decide what these things are,” Coinbase CEO said concerning the TNSR token. 

According to data analytics platform TIEXO, Tensor has periodically surpassed Magic Eden, a fellow Solan-based NFT marketplace, in trading volume.   

At the time of writing, Tensor had the highest number of unique wallets and the most newly generated wallets in the last 24 hours. 

Polkadot (DOT), the blockchain platform designed to enable interoperability between blockchains, has reached a significant milestone with a record-breaking 600,000 active addresses.    

Polkadot Hits New All-Time High. 

According to data from DotLake, shared in an April 7 post by Polkadot, the blockchain network has exceeded 600,000 active addresses at the end of March. 

“Activity continues to grow in the Polkadot ecosystem, where many apps use dedicated blockspace to prevent issues like network spam,” Polkadot said. 

The rise in active addresses indicates a growing interest in Polkadot’s unique strategy for solving the scalability and interoperability issues commonly faced by traditional blockchain networks.  

Unlike many protocols, Polkadot uses a multi-chain framework that allows multiple blockchains to operate concurrently, all interconnected through a central relay chain. 

According to data from DotLake, over 41% of the 605,00 addresses, or 248,000, are associated with the cross-chain smart contract platform Moonbeam, while 191,000 addresses were directly created on the Polkadot network.  

Additionally, the number of unique accounts holding non-zero balances is increasing steadily, reaching over 5.59 million by the end of March, compared to 5.53 million at the end of February.   

Polkadot’s Transactions

Interestingly, Polkadot recorded 11.58 million monthly transactions in March, a slight increase from 10.8 million in April, yet lower than the 31.78 million transactions recorded in December. However, the total transaction volume on the network continues to remain subdued.

As of 12:38 pm UTC, DOT had decreased by 3.3% over the past 24 hours, trading at $8.95, making it the 14th largest crypto asset by market cap. According to CryprocurrenciesToWatch, DOT is currently 83% down from its all-time high of $55, which it achieved on November 4, 2021. 

Polkadot’s Memecoin

Meanwhile, to seize the moment of the ongoing memcoin craze and attract more participants to the blockchain, the Polkadot community initiated its memecoin, $DED (DED).  

The memecoin started trending on the X platform on March 23. Investors holding Polkadot could receive 36 DED tokens for each 1 DOT held.  

DED is currently at $0.0000001383, of which it accumulated limited interest following the airdrop distribution. According to the liquidity pool on Hydradx, the trading pair DOT/DED recorded $20,536 in volume over the last 24 hours.

Binance has advised users of its NFT marketplace to withdraw their assets.

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has disclosed its decision to cease supporting Bitcoin-based Ordinary non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles in its NFT marketplace despite being the second highest-performing platform for NFT sales this week.

Binance has urged users of its NFT marketplace to withdraw their Ordinal inscriptions by May 18, 2024. The exchange noted that from April 18 onward, it will no longer accept deposits of Ordinal NFTs, and users are advised to withdraw their assets.  

Why Binance is Ending Support for Bitcoin NFTs

The reason behind the announcement remains largely unspecified, aside from a brief mention that it is “part of its ongoing efforts to streamline product offerings.” 

The announcement also covered the cessation of Bitcoin Ordinal airdrop activities on Binance NFT, alongside the launch of the Runestone NFT airdrop. 

“For Runestone NFT users who meet the conditions for the Runestone airdrop, Binance NFT had distributed these NFTs to eligible users’ Binance NFT accounts before 2024-04-04 10:00 (UTC),” the exchange said. 

Users are required to withdraw these NFTs by 2024-04-10 10:00 (UTC) to ensure they still have the opportunity to receive any associated tokens, utilities, and benefits after April 10.

Binance disclosed it will not be responsible for any losses incurred if users do not withdraw their NFTs before the stated time frame. The firm also noted that the trading of Runestone NFTs will not be supported on Binance NFT.  

Binance Reassures Users

Furthermore, Binance NFT will not support any “further airdrops, utilities or benefits associated with Bitcoin NFTs.”    

Although the announcement might disappoint certain members of the crypto community, Binance reassured its users that the decision was motivated by a desire to ensure the long-term sustainability and efficiency of its NFT marketplace.  

The exchange noted that it remains dedicated and committed to offering various selections of NFTs, though with a renewed focus on alternative assets. 

Leading global cryptocurrency exchange OKX has announced that it will enable spot trading for Zeus Network Token. The announcement marks a significant development for both the exchange and the Zeus Network community, opening up new avenues for trading and investment opportunities.  

What is Zeus Network Token? 

Zeus (ZEUS) Network Token is a blockchain-based platform that enables businesses to better manage their contacts, payments, and transactions with its smart contract system. It is also a pivotal permissionless layer that combines the formidable strength of Solana’s rapid transaction capabilities and scalability with Bitcoin’s security, trust, and liquidity. 

The initiative clears the path for Solana to become the premier hub for all ecosystems, captivating millions of users across diverse blockchains. The Zeus Network is powered by the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), which empowers Zeus Layer nodes to ensure robust security and seamless data exchange.  

Solana is a Problem Solver. 

However, Solana (SOL) was built to solve significant problems other blockchain networks cannot solve, including speed and affordable transaction fees. 

According to CryptocurrenciesToWatch, SOL has a market cap of $83.47B, with a live price of $187.54 at the time of writing.

ZEUS aims to create an open financial ecosystem that is secure and transparent, reducing transaction costs and ensuring the privacy of users who use the network’s services.  

Interestingly, the Zeus Network has partnerships with leading blockchain networks like Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric, which enables developers to easily integrate their applications into the platform for development or deployment on production networks.  

Furthermore, the ZEUS Network facilitates interoperable communication among cross-chain dApps, and it empowers liquidity and complex applications to seamlessly engage with Solana in a decentralized and permissionless environment, making it accessible to everyone.    

According to data from CoinMarketCap, the current price of Zeus Network is $0.864641, and its 24-hour trading volume was $77,047,414 at the time of writing. 

Meanwhile, according to the ZEUS AI price prediction, the price of Zeus is predicted to rise by 228.04% and reach $0.00002299 by April 25, 2024.   

Cathie Wood, the founder and CEO of investment management firm ARK Invest, has raised concerns about a critical yet frequently overlooked matter – currency devaluations on the rise of bitcoin (BTC).

ARK Invest focuses solely on disruptive innovation and offers investment solutions to investors seeking long-term growth in the public markets.

Why Is Bitcoin Fluctuating?

During an exclusive interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box, the CEO was asked about her thoughts on Bitcoin’s recent price movements. Wood responded, noting that “there are currency devaluations that people are not talking about.”

In the past week, the crypto asset drastically declined from its all-time high record of $73,750 to below $65,000. The decline has caused a shift in the crypto market. Some investors are considering withdrawing their funds, while others are hopeful about the future of the digital asset.

According to CryptocurrenciesToWatch, BTC is currently at $66,377, with a market cap of $1.3T.

Fiat Currency Devaluation

Wood listed some examples of fiat currencies that are struggling. The Nigerian NGN has been down 50-60% in the last nine months, Egypt just devalued by 40%, and Argentina continues to devalue.

She said, “I think this is a flight to safety, believe it or not, taking place. It is a hedge against devaluation. It is a hedge against loss of purchasing power and wealth.”

Additionally, the ARK Invest CEO mentioned that regional banks imploded in the United States last year, and Bitcoin increased by 40%.

Interestingly, she argued that BTC does not have counterparty risk – the probability that the other party in an investment, credit, or trading transaction may not fulfill its part of the deal and may default on the contractual obligations.

Wood cautioned that significant long-term risks be carried out, particularly regarding currency stability.

“As countries increasingly resort to monetary easing measures to support their economies, the consequence can be currency devaluation. The outcome of weakened currency extends far beyond financial markets, which affects everything from trade balances to inflation rates,” she explained.