The popular meme asset Dogecoin (DOGE) is surging this week as billionaire Elon Musk reportedly aims to launch financial services on the social media platform X by the end of next year. According to a new report by The Verge, the business magnate says he expects X’s comprehensive financial features to roll out by the […]
The post Dogecoin Has a Huge Week As Elon Musk Aims for X Financial Services To Launch by End of 2024: Report appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is looking to force billionaire Elon Musk to testify in its probe of his purchase of the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. In a new litigation release, the regulatory agency says that it has filed an application seeking an order that directs the business magnate […]
The post U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Seeks To Force Elon Musk Testimony in Twitter Takeover Probe appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
Elon Musk claims the SEC and DOJ are abusing their regulatory powers for personal and political gain to receive punitive action.
Elon Musk has called for a “comprehensive overhaul” of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission hours after the regulator sued Musk alleging he failed to testify in its probe relating to his $44 billion Twitter (now X) purchase last October.
The SEC is investigating if Musk’s purchase triggered securities laws and an Oct. 5 filing by the regulator in a California District Court seeks to compel Musk to comply with an earlier SEC subpoena.
In an X post the same day Musk suggested the SEC — along with the U.S. Department of Justice — should instead be the ones probed.
“A comprehensive overhaul of these agencies is sorely needed, along with a commission to take punitive action against those individuals who have abused their regulatory power for personal and political gain.”
“Can’t wait for this to happen,” Musk added, in response to a post outlining the various actions the U.S. government has taken against Elon Musk-led companies.
A comprehensive overhaul of these agencies is sorely needed, along with a commission to take punitive action against those individuals who have abused their regulatory power for personal and political gain.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 5, 2023
Can’t wait for this to happen.
Asked by an X user if such a probe would ever happen, Musk responded: “I estimate the probability at 100%.”
The SEC said it subpoenaed Musk in May 2023 and required him to provide testimony at the regulator’s San Francisco office on Sept. 15, which Musk initially agreed to, the filing reads.
Two days prior, Musk “abruptly” notified the SEC he wouldn’t make an appearance and made several “spurious objections,” the SEC said.
The regulator said it tried to negotiate an alternative time and place for Musk’s testimony in “good faith” but its efforts were met with Musk’s “blanket refusal.”
The SEC also claimed Musk’s objections lacked legal merit.
“None of Musk’s objections has any legal validity, and he has no justifiable excuse for his non-compliance with the SEC’s subpoena.”
X is among the most popular social media platforms for the cryptocurrency community with one heated topic of discussion being the SEC’s regulatory approach to the crypto industry.
Related: The ‘Elon effect’ shows how opinion leaders shape the fintech market
Musk has been looking to integrate cryptocurrency payments on X in recent months having obtained a currency transmitter license from Rhode Island’s regulator in late August.
Musk has taken shots at the SEC in the past, previously making his stance on the regulator clear in a December 2018 interview with 60 Minutes:
“I do not respect the SEC. I do not respect them.”
“I have no respect for the SEC''
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 5, 2023
Elon Musk
pic.twitter.com/a46zuKXb1X
Magazine: Hall of Flame: Peter McCormack’s Twitter regrets — ‘I can feel myself being a dick’
Leaked mobile phone numbers have given scammers an easy way to drain Friend.tech user accounts.
A single scammer has reportedly managed to steal around $385,000 worth of Ether (ETH) in less than 24 hours amid a scourge of SIM-swap hacks seemingly targeting Friend.tech users.
On Oct. 5, blockchain sleuth ZachXBT reported the same scammer had pilfered 234 ETH over the past 24 hours by SIM-swapping four different Friend.tech users.
The on-chain movement of crypto assets was traced back to the same hacker who drained the accounts of the four victims.
The same scammer profited $385K (234 ETH) in the past 24 hours off SIM swapping four different FriendTech users. pic.twitter.com/03BoBEqGax
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 4, 2023
One of the reported victims of the most recent chain of SIM-swap attacks posted to X (Twitter) following the attack:
“Got sim swapped. Apparently, dude was able to do it from an Apple store and switched it to an iPhone SE. Don’t buy my keys, that wallet is compromised.”
X user “KingMgugga” reported an attack targeting them happening in real time, posting to X that they were “getting f---ing sim swapped watching it happen” and asking for help. Meanwhile, another X user, “holycryptoroni,” confirmed they were similarly attacked, lamenting, “I got swapped sorry.”
Earlier this week, a further four Friend.tech users claimed to have their accounts drained as a result of a SIM-swap or phishing attack, totaling around 109 ETH stolen.
I was just SIM swapped and robbed of 22 ETH via @friendtech
— daren (friend, friend) (@darengb) October 3, 2023
The 34 of my own keys that I owned were sold, rugging anyone who held my key, all the other keys I owned were sold, and the rest of the ETH in my wallet was drained.
If your Twitter account is doxxed to your real… pic.twitter.com/5wA86mjYEG
Friend.tech allows users to purchase “keys” of individuals, which grants access to private chat rooms with them.
The SIM-swap scam occurs when scammers gain access to the victim’s phone number and use it to acquire authentication, which enables them to access their social media and crypto accounts.
Manifold Trading, a firm building tools for the ecosystem, estimated that $20 million of Friend.tech’s $50 million of total value locked could be at risk. It called for the platform to beef up its account security measures by enabling two-factor authentication (2FA).
Related: How easy is a SIM swap attack? Here’s how to prevent one
There have also been calls for X to implement 2FA security measures to prevent mobile phone numbers from getting leaked following the high-profile hack of Vitalik Buterin’s account in September, which was also due to a SIM swap attack.
“0xfoobar,” founder and CEO of wallet security firm Delegate, advised removing phone numbers from social media accounts.
crypto twitter is like a neighborhood where once a day somebody leaves their front door open, gets robbed, and everybody comes together to lament the loss, leaving their own front doors open. instead of retweeting the 75th simswap of the week go remove your phone from everything
— foobar (@0xfoobar) October 5, 2023
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The Ethereum co-founder has regained control of his T-Mobile account, confirming that a SIM-swap attack resulted in the hack of his X account.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has confirmed that the recent hack of his X (Twitter) account was the result of a SIM-swap attack.
Speaking on the decentralized social media network Farcaster on Sept. 12, Buterin said that he has finally recovered his T-Mobile account after the hacker managed to gain control of it via a SIM swap attack.
“Yes, it was a SIM swap, meaning that someone socially-engineered T-mobile itself to take over my phone number.”
The Ethereum co-founder added some lessons and learnings from his experience with X.
“A phone number is sufficient to password reset a Twitter account even if not used as 2FA,” he said, adding that users can “completely remove [a] phone from Twitter.”
“I had seen the ‘phone numbers are insecure, don't authenticate with them’ advice before, but did not realize this.”
On Sept. 9, Buterin’s X account was taken over by scammers who posted a fake NFT giveaway prompting users to click a malicious link which resulted in victims collectively losing over $691,000.
On Sept. 10, Ethereum developer Tim Beiko strongly recommended removing phone numbers from X accounts and having 2FA enabled. "Seems like a no-brainer to have this default on, or to default turn it on when an account reaches, say, >10k followers," he said to platform owner Elon Musk.
Twitter opsec PSA:
— timbeiko.eth ☀️ (@TimBeiko) September 9, 2023
If you have a phone number linked on your account, even with other 2FA, it can be used to reset your PW. Need to specifically disable it + remove phone #.
If your Twitter account pre-dates crypto, strongly recommend double-checking, and adding strong 2FA! pic.twitter.com/uXrvHYhQvJ
Related: How easy is a SIM swap attack? Here’s how to prevent one
A SIM-swap or simjacking attack is a technique used by hackers to gain control of a victim’s mobile phone number. With control of the number, scammers can use two-factor authentication (2FA) to access social media, bank, and crypto accounts.
It is not the first time T-Mobile has been involved in this type of attack vector. In 2020, the telecoms giant was sued for allegedly enabling the theft of $8.7 million worth of crypto in a series of SIM-swap attacks.
T-Mobile was also sued again in February 2021 when a customer lost $450,000 in Bitcoin in another SIM-swap attack.
Article updated to include additional comments from Tim Beiko.
Magazine: How to protect your crypto in a volatile market: Bitcoin OGs and experts weigh in
Following the reported breach of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin's X (formerly Twitter) account, victims suffered losses exceeding $691,000 due to a malicious link that falsely promoted a free NFT.
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum (ETH) had his X (formerly Twitter) account compromised, which, according to social media reports, resulted in victims losing over $691,000 through malicious links.
In a Sept. 9 post on X, Dmitry Buterin, the father of Vitalik Buterin, announced that his son's account has been compromised:
“Disregard this post, apparently Vitalik has been hacked. He is working on restoring access.”
The post to which he was referring has since been deleted. It was allegedly made by the hackers on Buterin's account to celebrate the arrival of "Proto-Danksharding on Ethereum."
The hacker shared a malicious link to an alleged free commemorative non-fungible token (NFT) available, enticing victims to connect their wallets, before ultimately stealing all their funds.
WARNING! I JUST LOST A FEW PUNKS!
— chiefeditor.eth@encyclopediagalactica.eth ohgod.et (@BokkyPooBah) September 9, 2023
DON'T INTERACT! pic.twitter.com/lS4VvlHdVa
Consequently, this incident has led a user on platform X to claim they've suffered losses to their CryptoPunk NFT collection.
At the time of publication, the prevailing minimum price for a CryptoPunk NFT stands at 46.99 Ether, which is approximately equivalent to $76,837.
Related: Blockchain Capital’s X account hacked to promote token claim scam
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has been actively informing his 438,200 followers about the hacker's activities, which have led to the illicit draining of $691,000 from Buterin's followers through the malicious link.
Update: $691k drained (another 33% in drainer fee address) pic.twitter.com/AVIShqDlMU
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) September 9, 2023
A user on X claimed that Buterin might not have implemented sufficient security measures for his X account.
"I hate to be the one to say it, but Vitalik should take accountability for his poor op-sec and compensate those affected," he noted, before implying that he believes Buterin's oversight led to the attack:
The only way this isn’t negligence on Vitalik part is if someone at X internally compromised the account, or if he was coerced in person by a criminal who threatened violence. I highly doubt that’s what happened.
However, ZachXBT challenged these allegations, asserting that Buterin's high profile makes him susceptible to various forms of hacking attempts:
"You do not know yet whether it was a SIM swap. Vitalik is a big enough target to where an insider could have been paid off or panel was used," he stated.
Magazine: How to protect your crypto in a volatile market: Bitcoin OGs and experts weigh in
Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao declares that the cryptocurrency industry will only become better as it becomes more decentralized.
Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao predicts that decentralized finance (DeFi) has the potential to surpass centralized finance (CeFi) in the next bull run.
During a Sept. 1 live X Spaces (formerly Twitter Spaces), titled CZ AMA, CZ stated his predictions for the future of DeFi. “I think the more decentralized the industry becomes, the better,” he declares, adding that it might not be long before it takes the top spot:
“Defi is the future, the volume is somewhere between 5% to 10% of CeFi volumes, which is not small right [...] the next bull run may very well make DeFi bigger than CeFi.”
Live now.https://t.co/e4bVfhKwRB
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) September 1, 2023
On June 9, Cointelegraph reported that following the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) legal action against centralized exchanges Coinbase and Binance, the median trading volume on the top three decentralized exchanges (DEX) surged by 444% within a 48-hour span. At the time of publication, the 24-hour trading volume on DEX's is $722,776,226.
CZ also shared his perspective on the recent dismissal of the lawsuit against the decentralized protocol Uniswap. “I agree with the uniswap thing was extremely positive, extremely reasonable and logical and clear. That is very good," he declared.
On Aug. 30, a US federal court dismissed a class action lawsuit against Uniswap, and its CEO, foundation and venture capital backers, brought by plaintiffs who claimed they lost money due to scam tokens on the decentralized cryptocurrency exchange.
Related: Balancer protocol exploited for $900K as DeFi hacks mount: Finance Redefined
The judge rejected the case because neither side could identify the scammers. Instead of suing the scammers for illegal solicitation, the plaintiffs were suing the defendants for what they said on social media.
During the Spaces, someone recalled the judge's decision that developers cannot be liable for misuse of their platform which the user believes is positive news for DeFi builders in the industry. CZ agreed and was quick again to praise the ruling.
“Developers writing code, that code is free speech. So the development is really good," CZ stated.
He also talked about how cryptocurrency should be used by every country, with some needing it more urgently than others.
“Every country needs crypto, some countries need it more urgently than others. Developed countries there may be less of a need, but ten they are letting the other guys catch up. So if they want to maintain the lead in terms of financial innovation, then they’ll need to adopt it.”
Magazine: How to protect your crypto in a volatile market: Bitcoin OGs and experts weigh in
Elon Musk has shot down rumors that his social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) will implement an “X coin” to reward creators. An X account with the handle “X News Daily” said in a new post that the social media platform “might be looking at launching [a] coin for creators!” Musk, however, replied […]
The post Elon Musk Shoots Down Rumors of ‘X Coin’ To Reward Creators on His Social Media Platform appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
The move appears to be related to cancellations, and people that were fired or mistreated at work for liking or posting certain content.
Elon Musk stated that his social media company X (formerly Twitter) will fund the legal bills of any user that was treated unfairly by their employer for engaging with content on the platform.
In an April 5 X thread announcing the move, Musk said that lawsuits of any scale will be supported:
“If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill. No limit. Please let us know.”
If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2023
No limit.
Please let us know.
The post appears to have been received well, and has more than 200,000 likes at the time of writing, with a flood of people putting their hands up for funding for potential lawsuits.
For example, The Libs of TikTok, a right-wing content account, highlighted a case in which a Limited Run Games employee Kara Lynne (@Kara_Creates) was reportedly fired for following the account on X.
In potentially putting his money where his mouth is, Musk responded by asking: “Kara, is that accurate?” with Lynne then stating: "The situation is slightly more complicated than the headline. But yes."
Kara, is that accurate?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2023
Musk is a self-described “free speech absolutist” who holds a clear disdain for cancel culture, and this latest move seems to fall in line with his push to shift X away from content censorship, particularly relating to political and ideological views.
In December, Musk tweeted that “cancel culture needs to be canceled,” and under his ownership, X has gone on to reinstate a number of accounts that were banned for policy violations under the previous ownership.
Related: No crypto plans for X: Elon Musk debunks scam token claims
The latest announcement from Musk comes as changes continue to unfold at X.
The platform underwent a full rebrand from Twitter to X in July as part of a push to become an “everything app”.
The revenue-sharing model was also recently introduced for users, while on Aug. 2, X also rolled out an option for the premium Blue service subscribers to hide their verified checkmarks.
Threads will copy and become better and better too. pic.twitter.com/KfP2Xney6J
— Mark Zuckerberg (Parody) (@MarkCrtlC) August 6, 2023
Magazine: How smart people invest in dumb memecoins — 3-point plan for success
The study also questioned whether FTX or Alameda had any role in coordinating Twitter bot activity for its own gain.
Crypto-spouting Twitter bots could be playing a much larger role in artificially inflating the price of altcoins than previously understood, a new study has suggested.
Using a sample of various FTX-listed cryptocurrencies in a study published Aug. 2, the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) said it analyzed over 3 million tweets posted between Jan. 1, 2019, to Jan. 27, 2023, surrounding 18 altcoins.
The study found that Twitter bot activity played a crucial role in amplifying the value of these cryptocurrencies, including The Sandbox (SAND), Gala (GALA), Gods Unchained (GODS) and LooksRare (LOOKS), with half of the coins showing signs of price influence as a result of tweet bot activity.
It also found that these inauthentic tweets would increase after FTX posted about the token on social media, which it said raises questions about whether FTX or Alameda Research could have played a role in coordinating the bot activity.
"In fact, for half of the FTX listed coins in the sample, inauthentic tweet volume showed signs of forecasting subsequent price. This suggests that inauthentic networks successfully and deliberately deployed to influence changes in FTX coin prices," it said, adding:
“It begs the question, did FTX or Alameda engage in coordinated inauthentic activity on social media to artificially inflate market values?”
The study also looked into the impact of bot activity and Elon Musk's crypto-adjacent tweets on two recent memecoins, suggesting the prices of Pepe (PEPE) and PSYOP have been influenced by both these factors.
NCRI detected a surge of newly created bot accounts before the launch of PEPE — which all went on to tweet about one of the two coins.
Pepe Coin and PSYOP leveraged memes and were also boosted by two of Musk’s tweets that seemingly gave a nod to each of the tokens, the study said.
Related: X’s ad revenue sharing: Crypto payments on the horizon?
Musk’s May 13 tweet of a Pepe meme caused the token's price to jump over 50% within 24 hours.
Explaining Constitutional Amendments pic.twitter.com/oYkMPBe9Zi
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2023
Alongside Musk’s tweets, account creation surges took place a day prior to Pepe’s April 17 launch which suggested an orchestrated effort to use bots to amplify the token’s popularity.
The study’s researchers said this phenomenon could also affect stocks and other securities. They pointed to the social media frenzy in 2022 surrounding so-called “meme stocks” such as Gamestop and AMC.
Magazine: How smart people invest in dumb memecoins — 3-point plan for success
