Crypto Weekly Roundup: Beanstalk Farms Hacked, Stripe Connect Announced, Binance’s Swastika Mishap, Lazarus On The Prowl, Moonbird Tops Trading Volumes, And More

North Korea’s Lazarus group is at it again. This time they are employing malicious apps to target employees and individuals in the crypto space in order to launch more sinister cybersecurity hacks. Keep reading to find out more. 

Bitcoin

Certain sources have claimed that Michael Saylor’s Microstrategy has been selling thousands of bitcoins. In fact, one claim is that so far, at least 8000 bitcoins have been sold by channeling the sales through various wallets and exchanges.

The CEO of Celsius and the founder of Bitmex have presented conflicting Bitcoin forecasts, with a bullish prediction by one and a bearish prediction by the other. 

The Australian markets will have two Spot Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and one Ethereum Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) going live as early as next week.

DeFi

Beanstalk Farms became the latest high-profile DeFi exploit as malicious actors hacked the protocol’s governance system to extract all of its collateral. 

Altcoins

Cardano (ADA) developer and researcher discussed the details of the Vasil Hardfork and all the major milestones that the network is set to achieve. 

Technology

Algorand has announced the launch of an automated carbon offsetting functionality based on a self-sustaining smart contract.

TRON founder Justin Sun announced via an open letter to the community that TRON had decided to list USDD, a decentralized algorithmic stablecoin.

Monero developers have announced that the privacy-focused blockchain protocol has reached a community consensus in which a mainnet hard fork will be implemented at a block height of 2,668,888.

Crypto wallet MetaMask took to Twitter yesterday to warn its users of the potential of a phishing attack through their iCloud accounts.

Business

Payments technology firm Stripe has announced the expansion of its Stripe Connect program, with an initial pilot phase that will enable crypto payments.

Nuggets News CEO Alex Saunders releases a public apology statement, clarifying that repayments have been made or are currently underway. 

The roll-out of a new Binance emoji was pulled by the company when it was pointed out by Twitter users that it resembled a swastika.

The Ton Foundation has revealed that users have donated over $1 billion to the foundation to advance the TON ecosystem.  

Financial services company Robinhood is set to purchase London-based fintech app Ziglu as part of its expansion into Europe. 

German bank Commerzbank has announced that it has applied for the country’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) license for a crypto custody business.

Circle Internet Financial has recently begun a $400 million investment round, resulting in a partnership with BlackRock to develop USDC standard. 

Regulation

The Bahamas have set out a digital asset strategy in their whitepaper that will allow residents of the Bahamas to pay their tax in cryptocurrency.

Binance.US has announced that it is leaving the Blockchain Association to set up its own government affairs team to engage with issues on crypto regulation and compliance with the country’s financial policies.

Singapore’s recent crypto license mandate has raised the appeal of other jurisdictions like Dubai for crypto companies to set up a base. 

The US government warns all crypto companies to beware of the North Korean Lazarus group and its plans of launching exploits through trojanized applications. 

NFT

Sales for Ethereum-based NFT project Moonbirds reached $290 million in four days, soaring to the top of trading volume charts and stunning the crypto-sphere. 

The LimeWire private token sale raised around $10.4 million, led by investors like Kraken Ventures, Arrington Capital, and GSR. 

F&B giant Nestle has introduced an exclusive limited series of only two NFTs available for bidding, with 100% of the proceeds going to charity. 

Louis Vuitton announces a new NFT collection tied to the brand’s mobile app game, Louis: The Game. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.