From the devastating news that BitMart has been hacked to El Salvador’s recent purchase of 150 BTC during the market dip, we got it covered.
It’s a brand-new week for the cryptoverse, and we are here to give you the latest happenings and trends that caught our eyes. It’s been a week of roller coasters, and we are here to update you on the hottest news.
Are you ready for it? Let’s go! Here are last week’s top headlines!
PRViously on Crypto, BitMart Hacked, Losses Estimated at $196 M, El Salvador stacks 150 Bitcoin after BTC price crashes below $50k
BitMart Hacked, Losses Estimated at $196 M
Hackers gained access to two BitMart hot wallets. One was an ETH wallet, while the other was a BSC wallet. Although the type of assault is unknown, BitMart expects losses to be in the $150 million range. The other BitMart hot wallets are unaffected, and withdrawals have been suspended till further notice while BitMart conducts a security review.
The withdrawals from those wallets were not unusual, according to BitMart’s official Telegram channel, but the company eventually revealed the attack via the CEO’s Twitter. BitMart’s native exchange token has lost 9.7% in the last 24 hours as a result of the breach and is presently trading at $0.323248.
Also Read: 4 things PrivacySwap accomplished during the great migration: November roundup
Losses understated, says Peckshield
Peckshield Inc, a blockchain security firm, estimates the losses to be in the neighborhood of $196 million, with roughly $100 million lost from the ETH wallet and $96 million lost from the Binance Smart Chain.
SAFEMOON, X2P, FLNS, BabyDoge, HERO, STARSHIP, FLOKI, JULb, CMCX, GMR, SPE, BETU, GMEX, ZOE, MOONSHOT, BPAY, STACK, EnergyX, BSC-USD, and BNB are among the BSC assets that have been impacted.
The hacker stole cash from hot wallets and traded them for ETH via the DEX aggregator 1inch, according to Peckshield’s own investigation into the attack.
The funds were then routed through Tornado Cash, an Ethereum-based privacy mixing technology that uses a smart contract to operate as a pool that accepts ETH deposits from one address and allows withdrawals from another address.
Before a transaction reaches its destination, the mixer mixes funds from several users. It’s difficult to tell where the money went, who transacted, or how much crypto was involved in a transaction once it’s been mixed.
Huobi commits to helping BitMart
It would be beneficial if other cryptocurrency exchanges were made aware of substantial deposits made through the Tornado Cash platform. Huobi has stated on Twitter that it is eager to assist in identifying inflows of assets related to the attack.
The Zcash team used open-source research to create Tornado Cash. Tornado Cash was also utilized as an anonymizer earlier this week in the MonoX Finance DeFi Protocol Hack.
El Salvador stacks 150 Bitcoin after BTC price crashes below $50k
El Salvador’s Bitcoin reserve has increased to 1,270 BTC, which is currently valued at about $60.3 million at the time of writing.
El Salvador has purchased 150 Bitcoin (BTC) in the midst of the most severe bear market since Bitcoin hit an all-time high of about $68,000 in the first week of November.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced the acquisition of 150 bitcoins after the market price fell below $50,000, losing more than 15% of its value.
While Bukele’s government was able to purchase the coins for $48,670 each, the bear market temporarily pushed the Bitcoin price down to roughly $42,000 after it fell over 37% from its all-time high.
The Bitcoin reserve of El Salvador has increased to 1,270 BTC, which is currently valued at about $60.3 million at the time of writing. Previously, on October 28, the president declared that he had purchased 420 Bitcoins during a temporary bear market.
The Salvadoran government’s game plan entails extracting unrealized BTC gains in US dollars to fund various development projects while keeping the central reserve’s overall value stable.
President Bukele announced the opening of Bitcoin City on November 21, a project first supported by $1 billion in Bitcoin bonds. Bukele claims that:
“In #BitcoinCity we will have digital and technological education. Geothermal energy for the entire city and efficient and sustainable public transport.”
The Bitcoin City initiative also includes famous crypto firms such as Bitfinex and Adam Back’s Blockstream, which, according to Bukele, “will soon be home to several local and foreign digital asset offers while designing new digital asset regulation for the country.”
Also Read: Crypto price dip: should you buy or not?
