Polygon Acquired Hermez for $250 Million | $ 600 Million Recovered

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Now, let’s see what happened in Crypto last week. 📰

1. Rockstar Gene Simmons Went In BIG With Bitcoin

In a new interview with CNBC, the Rockstar Gene Simmons says he got into cryptocurrency during the start of the Covid-19 outbreak after speaking with prominent Bitcoin bull and Gemini crypto exchange co-founder Tyler Winklevoss.

“I went in big. I put in a few million into Bitcoin when it was around $10,000.”

Simmons refers to himself as a “hodler,” and he thinks that Bitcoin’s price will hit $60,000 by the beginning of next year. Simmons further claims that when Bitcoin fell below $30,000 in May, he bought more.

“And I’m a ‘hodler,’ as they say… We’ll be at $55,000 to $60,000 by the beginning of next year. As a result, I’m all in. I’m putting forth more effort. When there was a major drop and it dropped to under $30,000 or something, I put additional money in.”

The Kiss lead singer also claims to have Ethereum (ETH) in his portfolio, which he purchased for roughly $900. He claims to have 14 ETH.

You can watch his full interview by Clicking Here

2. Poly Network Hacker Returned All of the $600 Million

In what is reported to be one of the largest cryptocurrency heists in history, a hacker returned all of the more than $600 million in crypto that they stole from Poly Network, a decentralised financial (DeFi) platform.

Poly alerted its 16,400 Twitter followers on Tuesday, August 11, 2021, that its system had been hacked.

The scale of the robbery / hack compared favourably to the $530 million worth of cryptocurrency hackers stole from Tokyo-based Coincheck exchange in January 2018, one of the largest digital heists ever recorded.

Poly network then released an official statement ,

Dear Hacker,

We are the Poly Network Team.

We want to establish communication with you and urge you to return the hacked assets.

The amount of money you hacked is the biggest one in the defi history. Law enforcement in any country will regard this as a major economic crime and you will be pursued. It is very unwise for you to do any further transactions. The money you stole are from tens of thousands of crypto community members, hence the people.

You should talk to us to work out a solution.

In response, the hacker published a series of posts embedded in a cryptocurrency transaction in which they said they would return the funds and were prepared to do so. According to sources, Poly replied by instructing the hacker to deliver the funds to three crypto addresses. According to Reuters, the hacker has already returned virtually all of the $610 million taken.

Hacker in-turn conducted an AMA and is as follows,

The hacker mentioned they exploited the Poly flaw “for fun” since cross-chain hacking is “hot” in the Q&A thread, which had some joie de vivre and introspection to it. Nonetheless, the hacker admitted having “mixed feelings” about carrying out the attack. “Consider what you should do in the face of such good fortune. So you’re respectfully asking the project team to correct it? … I accept responsibility for exposing the vulnerability before any insiders conceal and exploit it!”

The hacker stated that they had not exposed themselves. “Never, ever. I was aware of the dangers of exposing myself, even if I am not evil. So I utilised ephemeral email, IP addresses, or _so-called fingerprints that were untraceable. “I’d rather stay in the dark and save the world.”

The hacker was upset with Poly’s initial post. “They encouraged others to blame and despise me before I had a chance to respond!” They stated that the hacker always meant to refund the funds. “I’m not particularly interested in money. I realise it hurts when individuals are assaulted, but shouldn’t the hackers teach them something? I declared my decision to return before midnight, so those who had faith in me could get a nice night’s sleep ;)”

Following a $600 Million Hack, Poly Network Will Provide a $500,000 Bug Bounty

Poly Network, a decentralised finance (DeFi) interoperability protocol that was hacked for more than $600 million last week, has announced a $500,000 bug bounty programme to prevent similar attacks from occurring in the future.

“In addition to the earlier 500k proposal for MrWhiteHat, PolyNetwork formally announces a separate 500k bounty programme open for top security agencies,” the protocol’s developers tweeted today.

Following multiple conversations between the attacker and Poly Network, the team dubbed him “MrWhiteHat.”

Lionel Messi’s transfer from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) has generated headlines throughout the world this week.

According to Reuters, the transfer of the football superstar included a payment in cryptocurrency fan tokens as part of the player’s “welcome package.”

The monetary value of this payment was not disclosed, but it is regarded as a watershed moment in the evolution of digital assets and sport.

PSG’s fan token, which trades under the ticker name $PSG, was introduced in January 2020 in collaboration with Socios. The token allows fans to communicate with the club and take part in interactive online polls.

4. Chainlink Launches Data Oracles Based on Arbitrum One’s Ethereum Scaling Solution

Chainlink, a leading data oracle supplier, has announced the successful launch of Arbitrum One, the beta mainnet deployment of Arbitrum, the layer-two Ethereum scaling solution.

The launch announced on Thursday, would enable Arbitrum One developers to access financial market data directly on-chain, enabling expanded functionality to decentralised exchanges, algorithmic stablecoins, and other advanced decentralised finance (DeFi) products on the Arbitrum One network.

5. Stellar Network Now Supports the Chilean Peso Stablecoin

A new stable coin pegged to the value of the Chilean Peso is now available on the open-source Stellar payments network, but it has yet to gain traction with users.

CLPX Inc, based in Chile, has created the “CLPX” token, which it touts as the first Chilean Peso-pegged stable coin.

According to Stellar Expert’s public ledger, the stable coin has witnessed modest activity of $12,689 from a total of 12,902 trades since its introduction on Monday August 16 2021.

The new CLPX token is designed to simplify remittances and make it simple for investors around the world to use the copper-linked Chilean peso as a hedge.

Since 2018, the Central Bank of Chile has been exploring blockchain and central bank digital currency (CBDC) as part of its “Strategic Plan for 2018 to 2022.”

The Governor of the Central Bank of Chile, Mario Marcel, published a research report in 2019 stating that the central bank was considering a Chilean CBDC for wholesale adoption and cross-border payments, but it also raised concerns about infrastructure costs, cybersecurity, and anonymity at the time.

“People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.”
― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

6. Polygon Acquired Hermez for $250 Million, Includes the First-ever Token’merger’

Polygon (previously Matic Network), an Ethereum scaling project, has paid $250 million for Hermez Network, a ZK-Rollups-based Ethereum scaling solution. In addition, the two blockchain projects are integrating their native coins — MATIC and HEZ — in the first such transaction in the crypto industry.

Earlier this year, two Ethereum projects, Keep and NuCypher, integrated their protocols as well, but they kept their brands separate and their tokens separate. In other words, though their protocols were integrated, their tokens were not merged.

Polygon and Hermez signed an initial deal last week, on August 4, when Hermez revealed it was in “discussions” about a future merger with a public network. At the time, the two projects agreed on a token peg or swap ratio.

The reported peg was 3.5 MATIC: 1 HEZ, implying that HEZ token holders will be able to exchange their tokens for a variety of Polygon’s MATIC tokens. This will happen through the trading contract, which the projects plan to publish “soon.”

7. Binance is Ordered by a UK Court to Track Down Alleged Cryptocurrency Hackers

The High Court of London has ordered Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, to identify and freeze the accounts of hackers suspected of committing a $2.6 million heist on its platform.

The injunction was issued in response to a plea by Fetch.ai, a cryptocurrency startup that claims its Binance accounts were compromised in June. According to a transcript of the High Court proceedings, Fetch.ai claims the hackers stole several cryptocurrencies, including Tether, Binance Coin, Bitcoin, and FET, Fetch.ai’s own token.

Binance is a centralised exchange, which means it controls the private keys to its accounts and can freeze or halt trading. Decentralized exchanges and unhosted wallets, which allow traders to keep their own keys, are preferred by privacy purists.

The High Court of the United Kingdom ruled in 2019 that Bitcoin might be legally constituted “property,” clearing the way for demands like Fetch.ai’s. Even so, it is uncommon for British courts to order this type of purposeful tracing.

And, while Binance may freeze specific accounts, Fetch.ai will have to demonstrate that it was the victim of a fraud scheme before it can petition the court for its money back.

8. Fenerbahçe’s Ethereum Token Soars 433 Percent Upon Launch, Causing a Crypto Exchange to Crash

The token jumped by 433 percent an hour after Turkish sports team Fenerbahçe released its Ethereum-based fan token today, despite collapsing the only centralised exchange that lists it, Paribu.

According to the token’s whitepaper, Fenerbahçe Token holders will be able to vote on minor club matters such as naming facilities and gain priority access to match sales. Because FB is an ERC-20 token, its price is subject to market fluctuations, just like any other cryptocurrency.

The coin went live on Paribu today, however heavy demand caused the site to crash numerous times. The unlocked tokens that investors purchased on Monday for 30 lira are now worth 160 lira ($18.70), a 433 percent rise. So far, the exchange has transacted $150 million in FB tokens.

9. Bitcoin Mining Has Become 7.3 Percent More Difficult as a Result of the Most Recent Change

According to BTC(dot)com data, bitcoin mining got 7.3 percent more difficult today as a result of the network’s latest fortnightly update. It is the second positive adjustment since China’s mining crackdown reduced Bitcoin’s hash rate by 55%, halving the difficulty level.

The mining difficulty of Bitcoin is a measure of how much processing power is required to mine Bitcoin. To adapt for the variable amount of processing power behind the network, the blockchain adjusts the difficulty after every 2016 blocks are mined, roughly every two weeks.

Today’s difficulty adjustment is the second in a row that has been favourable. After the previous change on July 31, Bitcoin became 6% more harder to mine. The upward trend is not near as strong as it was in mid-May, when Bitcoin became 21.53 percent more difficult to mine, an all-time high.

10. The President of FTX US Wants Cryptocurrency Derivatives Trading to Begin Within a Year.

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has quickly shot to the forefront of American crypto consciousness. Just see its long-term deal to name the Miami Heat arena and the ubiquitous media appearances of its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.

But many of FTX’s financial products, including the popular derivatives products it made its name on, aren’t available to U.S. customers, who must use its affiliate, FTX.US.

If the CFTC approves, FTX.US has two alternatives for making derivatives trading a reality: apply for its own licence or acquire another company that already has one. “Our plans for which course to take…are still in the works,” he said.

11. Argentina’s President, Alberto Fernandez, says the Country is Open to adopting Bitcoin

Despite his own misgivings, Argentina’s president, Alberto Fernandez, has indicated that he is open to the possibility of crypto having a larger role in the country’s economy.

During an interview on Caja Negra, which aired yesterday on Filo.news, Fernandez was questioned if he would contemplate using a central bank digital money, or if he would mimic El Salvador and use Bitcoin as a legal lender.

“I don’t want to go too far out on a limb […] but there’s no reason to say ‘no,’”

Fernandez explained. “Perhaps that is a viable option.”

12. DAO Maker, a cryptocurrency crowdfunding platform, has been hacked for $7 million.

DAO Maker, a cryptocurrency crowdfunding site that enables public token sales for new projects, was hacked and emptied of around $7 million in money overnight.

According to the company, the incident, which was initially reported by Wu Blockchain, involved a hacker exploiting an exploit involving one of the company’s crypto wallets with administrator access. After successfully stealing 10,000 USDC dollar-pegged stablecoins with the hack, the attacker went on to perform 15 more transactions.

Finally, DAO Maker claims that 5,251 customers’ assets were taken from the platform before the security team could address the issue, with an average of $1,250 lost per user. According to the firm, the hacker targeted high-value accounts because users with $900 or less in their accounts were “completely unaffected.”

All deposits to the platform have been deactivated while DAO Maker investigates, and the business will “devise a set of solutions” over the next five days to “alleviate the incurred damages” and bring the perpetrator to justice.

DAO Maker bills itself as a “social mining and community incubation” tool, however, it is just a tokenized startup crowdfunding platform.

13. Bitcoin Tax Software Company After a $130 million raise, TaxBit is now worth $1.3 billion

TaxBit, a bitcoin tax software, and accountancy service revealed today that it has raised $130 million in Series B funding at a $1.33 billion valuation. TaxBit is the latest cryptocurrency firm to achieve “unicorn” status, or a valuation of $1 billion or more.

Since March, the Utah-based company has also become an IRS software partner and established a second office in Seattle. TaxBit has recently recruited new financial institutions as partners, including cryptocurrency exchange FTX US, which now employs the company’s Tax Center Suite.

The Series B financing was headed by IVP and Insight Partners, with participation from Tiger Global, Paradigm, Sapphire Ventures, 9Yards Capital, Madrona Venture Group, and Anthony Pompliano. As part of the fundraising, IVP General Partner Tom Loverro has joined TaxBit’s Board of Directors, while Insight Managing Partner Nikhil Sachdev will serve as a board observer.

TaxBit is one of several crypto-centric tax software packages on the market, with competitors such as ZenLedger, CoinTracker, and Accointing. ZenLedger just raised $6 million in a Series A investment led by billionaire investor Mark Cuban. As more people engage in cryptocurrencies and become aware of their tax requirements, the market for crypto tax software and services is expected to increase significantly.

Author: Eth!c@l Aka Kumar

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Source: https://medium.com/coinmonks/polygon-acquired-hermez-for-250-million-600-million-recovered-ea7ba4d9a889?source=rss——-8—————–cryptocurrency