WuBlockchain Weekly: Radiant Capital Cyberattack Triggers Panic, Trump Family Project's Public Sale Launches, Hong Kong Policy Address Includes Virtual Asset Provisions, etc

Oct 18, 2024

1. BlackRock CEO: Bitcoin Is an Asset Class of Its Own, Engaging Global Institutions on Allocation link

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas shared a full quote from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink during the third-quarter earnings call regarding Bitcoin and digital assets. Fink stated that Bitcoin itself is indeed an asset class, and they are currently in discussions with global institutions about allocation. He compared the current stage of Bitcoin to the early phase of the mortgage market (which now has a market value of $11 trillion). Furthermore, Fink emphasized that the U.S. President would have no significant impact on this. He also expressed his belief that this form of investment would eventually extend to Ethereum, as blockchain technology has the potential for significant growth.

2. Aspen Digital: 94% of Asian Private Wealth Has Invested or Is Considering Cryptocurrency Investments link

Aspen Digital’s latest report reveals a significant surge in interest in cryptocurrencies among Asia’s private wealth. The survey found that 76% of Asia’s private wealth has already ventured into digital assets, with an additional 18% planning to invest in the future, bringing the total to an impressive 94%. The report surveyed 80 family offices and high-net-worth individuals in the region, with most respondents managing assets between $10 million and $500 million. This marks a substantial increase compared to 2022, when only 58% had exposure to digital assets. Additionally, with the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. and Hong Kong, 53% of respondents have gained crypto exposure through funds or ETFs.

3. a16z Crypto Report: Global Cryptocurrency Activity and Usage Hits All-Time High link

a16z Crypto has released a report indicating that global cryptocurrency activity and usage have reached an all-time high. As of September this year, there are approximately 617 million cryptocurrency holders worldwide, with 60 million active users per month, with the U.S. accounting for 12% of global mobile wallet users. Additionally, the value transferred through Ethereum Layer 2 solutions has increased by 36%, while transaction fees have dropped by 94%. The report also highlights that since the U.S. approved the Bitcoin ETF in January, its cumulative trading volume has reached $437.6 billion.

4. Vitalik Explores the Future of Ethereum Protocol in “The Surge” link

Vitalik has released a new article, *Possible Futures for the Ethereum Protocol, Part 2: The Surge*, outlining key goals for Ethereum’s future development. These goals include achieving over 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) across both Layer 1 (L1) and Layer 2 (L2); maintaining decentralization and robustness of L1; ensuring that at least some L2s fully inherit Ethereum’s core properties (trustlessness, openness, and censorship resistance); and maximizing interoperability between L2s, so Ethereum functions as an ecosystem rather than 34 separate blockchains. The article emphasizes that the current task is to complete the rollup-centric roadmap and address related challenges while preserving the robustness and decentralization of Ethereum L1.

5. Monochrome to Launch Australia’s First Ethereum Spot ETF on Cboe link

Monochrome Asset Management is preparing to launch Australia’s first Ethereum spot ETF, named IETH, on the Cboe exchange, with trading set to begin on Monday. The fund positions itself as the world’s first to offer physical Ethereum subscriptions and redemptions. Earlier in June, Monochrome had introduced Australia’s first Bitcoin spot ETF, IBTC, on Cboe Australia.

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6. Radiant Capital Suffers Cyberattack, Losses Exceed $50 Million link

In the early hours of October 17, cross-chain lending protocol Radiant Capital was hit by a cyberattack resulting in losses exceeding $50 million. The protocol, controlled by a multisig wallet, reportedly fell victim after the attacker compromised the private keys of several signers, thereby gaining control over multiple smart contracts. According to data from Arkham, the attacker’s wallet holds more than $32 million worth of assets on Arbitrum and around $18 million in BNB Chain tokens.

Twitter user @danielvf analyzed the breach, explaining that the attacker planted trojan software on the computers of several team members, tricking their hardware wallets into signing a malicious `transferOwnership()` operation, which handed over control of the lending pool to the attacker. The attacker then deployed `transferFrom` code, continuously stealing funds from user-authorized accounts. There’s no indication that the hardware wallets themselves were compromised; instead, it appears the signing requests were intercepted and altered on the team members’ computers. The complexity of this attack, which involved trojans, hardware wallet interception, smart contract manipulation, and knowledge of the organization’s structure and signature process, far exceeds typical hacks. The attacker also had a money laundering exit strategy prepared. To prevent such attacks, it is recommended that teams strengthen time locks and governance processes, and halt signing immediately when there are anomalies, such as signatures not matching the multisig system.

Radiant Capital responded to the attack on Twitter, stating that they are collaborating with Seal911 and Hypernative and have implemented stronger multisig controls. The FBI and ZeroShadow are actively involved in freezing the stolen assets. The protocol also provided preventive measures, such as multi-layer signature verification, independent device validation, enhanced Ledger/Trezor security, trigger audits, and manual transaction load checks.

7. Tether: USDT Added 36.25 Million Users in Q3, Setting a Quarterly Record link

As of Q3 2024, the number of USDT wallets and accounts on-chain has reached 330 million, nearly equivalent to the population of the United States. This figure excludes the tens of millions of users utilizing USDT on centralized platforms. Over the past year, the number of USDT users has continued to grow at an average rate of 9%, with 36.25 million new users added in the third quarter alone, marking a record for quarterly growth. This expansion has been driven largely by applications across multiple chains such as Tron, Binance Smart Chain, and Ethereum, with significant contributions from Layer 2 chains like Optimism, Arbitrum, and newer platforms like TON and Celo.

In addition, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino announced that the company is exploring opportunities in commodity trading and traditional finance (TradFi). These operations, managed through an independent Tether investment division, will not impact the reserves backing the stablecoin. Tether has already held discussions with several companies in the commodities sector about the potential for offering dollar loans.

8. Trump-Backed DeFi Project World Liberty Financial’s Public Sale Struggles link

In the public sale of the DeFi project World Liberty Financial (WLFI), supported by U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, only 638 million WLFI tokens were sold as of this Wednesday, representing just 3.2% of the total. At the public sale price of $0.015 per token, this amounts to $9.57 million. According to *The Block*, the website experienced multiple intermittent outages during the token sale launch. The project’s roadmap shared with potential investors aimed to raise $300 million by selling 20% of the token supply, with a total valuation of $1.5 billion.

A 13-page document from the Trump family’s crypto project, World Liberty Financial (WLF), outlines the mission and token distribution scheme. It reveals that the Trump family will receive 75% of the project’s net earnings, without bearing any liabilities. The document clarifies that neither Trump nor his family members are directors, employees, managers, or operators of WLF or its affiliates and states that the project and tokens “are not related to any political activity.” A Delaware-based company linked to Trump, DT Marks DEFI LLC, will receive 75% of the protocol’s net income, with the Trump family entitled to 22.5 billion WLFI tokens (approximately $337.5 million). The remaining 25% of the protocol’s net income will go to Axiom Management Group (AMG), a Puerto Rican company fully owned by the project’s co-founders, Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman. AMG has agreed to allocate half of its earnings to WC Digital Fi, a company associated with Trump’s friend and political donor Steve Witkoff and some of his family members.

9. FractureLabs Sues Jump Trading for Alleged Token Price Manipulation link

Video game developer FractureLabs has filed a lawsuit against the well-known cryptocurrency market maker Jump Trading in the federal court of Chicago, accusing it of fraud and deception through the manipulation of DIO token prices. FractureLabs initially planned to launch the DIO token in 2021 on the Huobi exchange (now rebranded as HTX) to raise funds. The company engaged Jump Trading as the market maker for DIO and loaned 10 million tokens to its subsidiary while sending 6 million tokens to HTX for the sale.

The lawsuit alleges that Jump Trading systematically liquidated its DIO holdings, causing the token price to plummet to approximately $0.005, thereby generating millions of dollars in profit for itself. Subsequently, Jump repurchased around $53,000 worth of tokens at a significant discount and returned them to FractureLabs before terminating the market maker agreement.

10. Hong Kong Chief Executive’s 2024 Policy Address Highlights Various Virtual Asset Initiatives link

The 2024 Policy Address of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong states in paragraph 99: to promote the application of central bank digital currency (CBDC) in cross-border payments; to enhance the regulation of virtual asset trading — the Financial Secretary’s Bureau will complete the second round of consultation regarding the regulation of over-the-counter trading of virtual assets and submit a proposed licensing system for the regulation of virtual asset custodians; to advance the tokenization of real-world assets and the digital currency ecosystem; to foster the development of the digital securities market, encouraging more financial institutions and issuers to adopt tokenization technology in capital market transactions; and in collaboration with the Financial Secretary’s Bureau, to submit a legislative proposal this year to regulate the issuance of fiat-backed stablecoins.

Fundraising

Binance Labs has announced an investment in Lombard Paradigm, the developer of LBTC. link
Lombard Paradigm has secured $20 million in funding from Ithaca. link
The zero-knowledge verification protocol zkPass has completed a Series A funding round, raising $12.5 million and achieving a valuation of $100 million. link
Opacity Network, a zero-knowledge proof data verification platform, has raised $12 million in seed funding. link
Blockchain game developer Azra Games has successfully closed a Series A funding round, raising $42 million. link
Solv Protocol has completed a strategic financing round of $11 million, bringing its total funding to $25 million. link
Bitcoin crypto derivatives exchange Bitnomial has secured $25 million in funding led by Ripple Labs. link
Digital asset solutions provider Mento Labs has completed a $10 million financing round, with participation from HashKey Capital and others. link
The African cryptocurrency exchange Yellow Card has successfully raised $33 million in Series C funding. link
The blockchain data availability project Hyve has announced the completion of $1.85 million in pre-seed funding. link
The Bitcoin protocol layer Surge has raised $1.8 million in pre-seed financing. link
Cross-chain staking protocol Drop Protocol has completed a $4 million seed funding round. link
Stablecoin developer Hermetica has raised $1.7 million in seed funding. link
Pell Network has successfully closed a $3 million pre-seed financing round. link

Learn more, check out crypto-fundraising.info.

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