BSC

Ascendex Hacked — Exchange Loses $77 Million in ERC20, BSC, Polygon Tokens

December 12, 2021 Bitcoin.com

AscendEX loses $80M following ERC-20, BSC, Polygon hot wallet compromise

December 12, 2021 Coin Telegraph

AscendEX loses M following ERC-20, BSC, Polygon hot wallet compromise

Binance

Out of the lot, around $60 million worth of tokens were transferred over the Ethereum blockchain alone. Tokens stolen from BSC and Polygon are worth $9.2 million and $8.5 million respectively.

Crypto trading platform AscendEX suffered a loss of $77.7 million in a hot wallet compromise that allowed hackers to access and transfer tokens hosted over the Ethereum (ETH), Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Polygon (POLY) blockchains.

Soon after realization, AscendEX proactively warned its users about the stolen funds, confirming that the hackers were not able to access the company’s cold wallet reserves.

22:00 UTC 12/11, We have detected a number of ERC-20, BSC, and Polygon tokens transferred from our hot wallet. Cold Wallet is NOT affected. Investigation underway. If any user’s funds are affected by the incident, they will be covered completely by AscendEX.
— AscendEX (@AscendEX_Global) December 12, 2021

According to PeckShield, a blockchain security and data analytics company, around $60 million worth of tokens were transferred over the Ethereum blockchain. Tokens stolen from the Binance Smart Chain and Polygon are worth $9.2 million and $8.5 million respectively, as evidenced by EtherScan data.

Estimated loss @AscendEX_Global: $77.7M in total ($60M on @ethereum $9.2M @BinanceChain $8.5M @0xPolygon). Here is the list of the transferred-out assets and their amounts on @ethereum pic.twitter.com/VC4DKOwu4f
— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) December 12, 2021

Some of the popular tokens stolen in this hack include USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT), and Shiba Inu (SHIB). However, AscendEX is yet to officially confirm the exact worth of the tokens taken away by the hackers.

The company also announced to help the affected users by covering up their losses due to this attack.

Just last week on Dec. 05, a similar attack on crypto exchange BitMart resulted in a loss of nearly $200 million due to a hot wallet compromise hosted over the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain blockchains.

As reported by Cointelegraph, the hack was a straightforward case of transfer-out, swap, and wash:

Transfer of stolen tokens on Bitmart. Source: PeckShield

While BitMart CEO Sheldon Xia confirmed the losses over Twitter, he announced a temporary stop on all withdrawals and deposits while further investigations were underway.

The deposit and withdrawal function of all tokens will be resumed step by step, along with the recovery progress of security testing and public chain development. No worries, we are marching forward, security will be always the first priority.
— Sheldon Xia (@sheldonbitmart) December 8, 2021

Crypto Biz: Smart money ignores BTC price correction as $800M set to flow into blockchain startups, Dec. 9

December 9, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Crypto Biz: Smart money ignores BTC price correction as 0M set to flow into blockchain startups, Dec. 9

BSC

Crypto- and blockchain-focused capital raises continue to make headlines as venture funds look to support the emergence of Web 3.0.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) return to sub-$50,000 levels has many market participants fretting over the legitimacy of their favorite price models. For venture capitalists and other smart money investors, the latest decline is nothing but noise. Instead, they see the emergence of an entirely new economy that is transforming business, redefining monetary value and pushing the internet to a new frontier.

This week’s Crypto Biz newsletter highlights four major funding deals from the world of blockchain. Below is a concise version of the Thursday edition of our newsletter.

10T Holdings plans $500M crypto fund

Earlier this week, equity fund 10T Holdings filed a notice with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a new $500 million crypto-focused investment fund. The 10T DAE Fund 3.0 has been designed to support mid-to-late-stage companies in the digital asset space. 10T has an excellent track record identifying promising crypto plays, with the likes of Kraken, eToro, Huobi and Ledger already a part of its portfolio.

Binance Smart Chain and Animoca Brands launch $200M GameFi fund

Binance Smart Chain and Animoca Brands have each allocated $100 million to a new development fund focused on the fast-growing GameFi ecosystem. GameFi, which refers to the financialization of gaming, is expected to be one of the biggest trends in crypto in 2022 and beyond. The new fund will focus specifically on projects building on the Binance Smart Chain.

Former Facebook engineers at Mysten Labs raise $36M

Mysten Labs, the research and development firm founded by former Facebook engineers, has raised $36 million from some of crypto’s biggest venture funds, including Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, Coinbase Ventures and Samsung NEXT. If you haven’t heard of Mysten Labs, the infrastructure developer is working on building a Web 3.0 interface, which includes a “next-generation NFT platform for the Metaverse.”

Fintech startup Lydia raises $100 million in Series C

Speaking of major funding news, crypto-friendly fintech startup Lydia has concluded a $100-million funding round, bringing its total valuation to over $1 billion. You can think of Lydia as an alternative to the popular Cash App and Venmo peer-to-peer payment services. And much like those platforms, Lydia provides another mobile payment gateway to the cryptocurrency market.

Crypto Biz is a weekly newsletter that provides readers with the latest scoop on the business behind crypto and blockchain. The newsletter is delivered to your inbox every Thursday. Stay informed by subscribing below.

Binance Smart Chain Partners With Animoca Brands in $200 Million Crypto Gaming Incubation Fund

December 7, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Binance Smart Chain and Animoca Brands form $200M fund for GameFi projects

December 6, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Binance

BSC-based projects will get a chance to gain insight from Animoca Brands and assistance from the BSC community.

Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Animoca Brands are launching a $200 million investment program to incubate early cryptocurrency-focused gaming projects building on BSC.

BSC and Animonica announced Dec. 6 that they are co-investing up to $100 million each to support game projects in the GameFi sector.

One of the largest blockchain ecosystems, BSC will be investing from its $1 billion accelerator arm for decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens (NFT) and GameFi. The fund was set up earlier this year to extend BSC ecosystem services and drive mainstream adoption across the fintech sector.

Animoca Brands is a major player in blockchain gaming and the open metaverse, working on providing property rights via NFTs and gaming. The firm has invested in major NFT-related projects including Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Bitski, Harmony and others.

“With this co-investment, projects building on BSC will get the opportunity to gain insights and expertise from leading gaming giants such as Animoca Brands, along with collaboration opportunities with blockchain experts from the BSC Community,” BSC investment director Gwendolyn Regina said.

GameFi, a mix of gaming and DeFi, has been one of the biggest buzzwords in the cryptocurrency industry recently alongside the concept of the metaverse. GameFi refers to the financialization of video gaming and operates under a play-to-earn model instead of play-to-win.

A number of major crypto companies and investment firms have been investing in GameFi over the past couple of months, including Huobi crypto exchange, Solana Ventures, FTX, Sanctor Capital, and others.

Value Locked in Defi Slips 5% in 24 Hours, AMM and Rebase Tokens Take Double-Digit Losses

December 5, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Metaverse Gaming Altcoin Bursts Into Stratosphere After Announcement of Binance Integration

December 1, 2021 The Daily Hodl

Binance Smart Chain hits record-high daily transactions

November 17, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Binance

The DeFi platform has recorded approximately 1.75 billion lifetime transactions since its launch in August 2020.

Analytical data from BscScan, a sister product of Etherscan, reveals that Binance Smart Chain (BSC) surpassed 14.7 million blockchain transactions on Tuesday.

This establishes a landmark all-time high for the decentralized finance network, which exceeds the previous high of 13.1 million recorded on July 29 this year.

In addition, 276,446 new wallet addresses were created on Tuesday, a notable advancement of the 111,244 new addresses on July 29. The BSC team tweeted an official announcement this morning to share the successful milestone.

Congratulations to the whole #BSC community!

Binance Smart Chain hit a record-breaking milestone of over 14.7 million blockchain transactions in one day; a milestone no other blockchain project has ever achieved!

Check here - https://t.co/XX7sdJ2nT8 pic.twitter.com/JTCvemoXRm
— Binance Smart Chain (@BinanceChain) November 17, 2021

For greater context, the Ethereum network recorded 1.3 million total transactions on Tuesday, with 134,354 new addresses added, while the Bitcoin network achieved 301,103 total transactions, with 740,829 new addresses onboarded.

BSC ecosystem coordinator Samy Karim drew comparisons to transaction metrics between different blockchain networks, stating, “In the last two weeks, daily BSC blockchain transactions have averaged well over 10 million txs per day. When compared to other blockchains, BSC currently boasts an ecosystem with the most number of transactions ever recorded at the lowest possible fees.”

Binance Smart Chain was incepted in late-August 2020 as a launchpad platform that cultivates the development of innovative startup projects and decentralized applications compatible with the Ethereum blockchain through the Ethereum Virtual Machine. To date, the platform facilitates over 1,000 dApps.

On Oct. 12, major cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced the launch of a $1-billion accelerator fund to enhance the proficiency of the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem in blossoming sectors in the crypto-sphere, such as metaverses, gaming, virtual reality and artificial intelligence, among others.

Gwendolyn Regina, investment director at BSC Accelerator Fund, shared some insights into the ten-figure funding pot:

“The $1 billion Growth Fund has already started projecting growth in the BSC ecosystem. We will support 500+ projects building on BSC with the aim to onboard the next one billion users to the blockchain and crypto space.”

BSC is home to 159 protocols, the most prominent of which is PancakeSwap. It currently reports a total value locked of $17.77 billion, which represents the majority of the overall $30.6 billion on the BSC platform, according to data from Defistation.