Daily Crypto News | August 22nd, 2022

Welcome to Barmy’s Daily Crypto News – August 22nd, 2022

1. Hackers use a zero-day weakness to steal from General Bytes Bitcoin ATMs.

On August 18, the servers of General Bytes, a company that makes bitcoin ATMs, were hacked by a zero-day attack. This enabled the hackers access to change settings so that all funds would be sent to their wallet address and to set themselves as the default admins.

The vulnerability has existed since Aug. 18, when the hacker’s modifications brought the CAS software up to version 20201208. Customers running on 20220531 have been instructed by General Bytes to stop using their General Bytes ATM servers until they update their servers to patch release 20220725.22.

Since its founding in 2020, General Bytes claimed that several security audits have been carried out, but none of them have discovered this issue.

A server hosted on General Bytes’ own cloud service was among those that the business believes the hackers “scanned for exposed servers running on TCP ports 7777 or 443, including servers.” The hackers then changed the ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ settings so that any cryptocurrency received by the Bitcoin ATM would instead be transferred to the hacker’s wallet address by adding themselves as a default admin on the CAS with the username ‘gb’.

2. Web3: Is it hackable? The internet is decentralized, is it safer?

When Web3 was created, it was intended to be an internet disruption driven by blockchain. However, because Web3 is still a young technology, conversations concerning its actual capabilities and place in our daily lives are sometimes hampered by a mist of presumptions. As tools and apps hosted over blockchains become more common in a Web3-powered future, security is one of the most important qualities among the rest.

Hackers target the project’s smart contracts’ vulnerabilities while the blockchains that host Web3 applications remain impermeable to attackers. Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms are increasingly the target of smart contract assaults; according to a recent report, $1.6 billion worth of cryptocurrencies were taken in just the first quarter of 2022.

DeFi, despite being a part of the Web3 spectrum, represents the ecosystem’s biggest risk. Web3 business owners must therefore divert their marketing funds to the creation of the core infrastructure.

As has been seen throughout the year, vulnerabilities that enable hackers to drain off substantial sums of money result in temporary losses for the investors and may indirectly lead to the collapse of connected ecosystems.

Bad actors within the system may defraud the project and its investors in addition to external hacks. To prevent internal assaults, fail-safe procedures with restricted access for employees are needed.

3. According to leaked documents, FTX revenue increased by 100% in a single year.

When Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies reached their all-time highs in 2021, FTX was one of the several crypto exchanges that had a front-row seat to the euphoria surrounding cryptocurrencies. According to CNBC, who claimed access to the data, the audited financials for FY 2020–2021 show FTX experiencing a 1000% rise in sales, rising from $90 million in 2020 to $1.2 billion in 2021.

According to the revenue breakdown, FTX’s operating income rose by 1842.85% in just one year, from $14 million to $272 million. The cryptocurrency exchange generated $388 million in net profits, a 2182.35 percent rise from $17 million the previous year.

According to reports, FTX generated $270 million during the first quarter of 2022. The exchange’s performance during the crypto winter has not yet been made public. Despite the outstanding first quarter results, the prolonged crypto winter and its repeated market collapses have certainly had an influence on the growth trajectory.

4. By year’s end, the Moscow Exchange plans to list digital financial assets.

By the end of the year, the Moscow Exchange, which is Russia’s biggest market for stocks, bonds, and derivatives, plans to introduce a product based on virtual currency. To arrange the deployment of digital tokens, the trading platform is already collaborating with a partner.

According to a senior official of the Moscow Exchange (MOEX), the release of a product based on digital financial assets (DFAs) is scheduled for 2022. The announcement follows a difficult time for Russia’s top stock market earlier this year when it had to contend with market volatility, sanctions pressure, and cyberattacks. In order to execute a project to place digital tokens, MOEX is now collaborating with one of its partners.

Early in July, the head of the lower house of parliament’s Financial Market Committee said that a Russian digital asset exchange would be in the greatest position to handle cryptocurrency transactions in the nation. The establishment of the cryptocurrency trading platform at the Moscow Exchange was another suggestion made by Anatoly Aksakov.

5. Ethermine begins the countdown to the merge.

The largest ethereum mining pool in the world, Ethermine, has declared its intention to completely discontinue proof-of-work (PoW) ethereum mining. Users can continue mining ether until the clock reaches zero, according to Ethermine, which claims that a countdown will be displayed on the platform’s miner dashboard.

Ethermine Ethereum Mining Pool Will Switch to Withdraw-Only Mode After the Merge, the Largest Ether Mining Pool, Will Terminate PoW Ethereum Mining.

The platform intends to stop mining ETH as soon as The Merge occurs, according to a recent declaration from Ethermine, the biggest ethereum mining pool in the world. On or around September 15, 2022, the Ethereum network will change from a proof-of-work (PoW) network to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network. It’s been a guessing game over the past several weeks as to where exactly ethereum miners will go after The Merge.

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