Serious Bitcoin And Crypto Hack Warning As Apecoin Price Plummets

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In on the ground floor ?

While cryptocurrency prices aren’t rising, they’re not falling either. The floor bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies found last summer seems to be holding for most major coins and it seems only a big event is going to push prices under the current level. What that may be is anyone’s guess but it could come in the form of strict new regulation, a high-profile holder like Elon Musk cashing out or a breakdown in El Salvador’s bitcoin experiment. For the time being, the current range-based trading looks likely to continue with Bitcoin 2022 in Miami next month potentially the catalyst for a surge higher.

Bitcoin is down 1% on this time yesterday with ethereum following it lower. The rest of the crypto top ten, as measured by CoinMarketCap is mixed. Avalanche, an ethereum rival, is surging, up 5%, while Terra’s luna looks like it could displace Ripple’s XRP as the sixth biggest coin this week.

After sprinting out of the starting blocks, the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection’s apecoin has tripped. Investors are currently aping out of what’s effectively a memecoin and it’s down 5% on this time yesterday. Over the weekend Coindesk published a good overview of the hot new coin.

Good to know: Bored Apes creator Yuga Labs teases new project called ‘Otherside’

Crypto chaos after Hubspot hack ?️

Hacked off: A handful of crypto companies were forced to contact their users over the weekend warning that a data breach at marketing software maker Hubspot may have resulted in their information being stolen. Crypto lending company BlockFi, bitcoin-buying app Swan Bitcoin and hedge fund Pantera Capital all contacted their users to tell them names and contact information may have been accessed but that Hubspot hackers did not gain access to their internal systems. Some 30 clients are thought to have been affected but a full list has not been published.

Why it matters: Data breaches are especially worrying for cryptocurrency users and companies. If bitcoin or other coins are stolen it often means there’s no route to recovery. Moreover, previous crypto company data breaches have resulted in targetted phishing attacks against known crypto users and even threats of physical violence. New “attack vectors” related to a July 2020 data breach at hardware wallet Ledger are still being uncovered. Some crypto users “have reported receiving an uptick in phishing emails from the companies over the weekend, attempting to lure them into entering their password on a fake site,” according to Coindesk.

How did it happen: Hubspot stores user names, phone numbers, and email addresses on behalf of companies for marketing purposes, using data to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. According to Hubspot, the hacker gained access to an employee account that was used to specifically access crypto industry data. “On March 18, a bad actor compromised a HubSpot employee account and used it to access data within fewer than 30 HubSpot accounts,” read a statement posted to Hubspot’s website. “At this time, we believe this to be a targeted incident focused on customers in the cryptocurrency industry. We have terminated access for the compromised HubSpot employee account and removed the ability for other employees to take certain actions in customer accounts.”

What you should do: If you store any significant amount of cryptocurrency with any company that uses Hubspot or might use Hubspot, update your passwords, enable non-cell phone two-factor authentification and be extra aware of potential phishing attacks. It’s not easy being your own bank.

Now read this: The latecomer’s guide to crypto

Pain gets meta ?

? A tech company in Japan is working on delivering physical pain to metaverse users as developers look to break down the walls between the real and the virtual.

⚡ Sony-backed H2L has developed an armband that uses electrical stimulation to recreate sensations with the company hoping to “release humans from any sort of constraint in terms of space, body and time” by 2029.

?️ “Feeling pain enables us to turn the metaverse world into a real [world], with increased feelings of presence and immersion,” Emi Tamaki, chief executive and co-founder of the Tokyo-based company, told the Financial Times.

Good to know: Global regulators are monitoring crypto use in the Ukraine war

The week ahead ?

Look out for these cryptocurrency and crypto-related events this week.

? Today, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell will speak at a National Association for Business Economics conference on “sustainable and inclusive growth”—but expect some comment on interest rates and inflation, the two big topics taking up much of trader and investor headspace at the moment.

? Where in the world is… El Salvador’s bitcoin bond? The world is still waiting for El Salvador, the first country to adopt bitcoin as one of its official currencies, to launch its hotly-anticipated $1 billion, bitcoin-backed, volcano-fueled bond. Last week, El Salvador Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya—who previously said the bond sale could come between March 15 and March 20—warned the war between Ukraine and Russia could slow the process.

– Bitcoin bond set for baptism of fire in El Salvador

?️ Tomorrow, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) will bring together global policymakers and senior executives from the financial and technology industries to discuss the future of money and payments. European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde tops the bill with Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey also appearing. Bitfury’s chief executive, a former U.S. currency comptroller, Brian Brooks will be flying the crypto flag.

– Bailey is speaking again on Friday at online forum hosted by a U.K.’s trade body.

ICYMI: The man behind ethereum is worried about crypto’s future