Week in Review: Hacker steals $625 million from Ronin sidechain; Bitcoin network mines the 19-millionth coin

An attacker stole a record $625 million from the Ronin sidechain in the DeFi sector; the Bitcoin network mined its 19-millionth coin; the European Parliament backed mandatory verification of users of non-custodial wallets, among other developments from the week.

Bitcoin price briefly surpassed $48,000

On Monday, March 28, Bitcoin extended its weekend rally, climbing to a local high just above $48,000 on Tuesday. The asset could not sustain above that level. As of writing, Bitcoin was trading near $46,337.

The rest of the top-10 by market capitalisation also closed the week in the green. The strongest performers were Solana (+33%) and Terra (+24.5%), which updated an all-time high.

According to CoinCodex, over the week among mid-cap assets the biggest rally was in the governance token of the lifestyle platform STEPN. The Green Metaverse Token (GMT) rose by 217%.

The biggest fall among mid-cap assets was the Voyager Digital token, VGX, which dropped 14.49%.

The total cryptocurrency market capitalisation stood at $2.26 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index fell to 38.9%.

Ronin Ethereum sidechain hacked; attacker drained $625 million

The attacker targeted the Ronin sidechain used in the Axie Infinity blockchain game and exfiltrated crypto assets worth around $625 million. The incident marked the DeFi sector’s biggest theft on record.

Sky Mavis, the developer behind the project, later said the attacker used social engineering to gain access to the assets. Victims were promised compensation.

Hackers stole over $15 million in attack on Inverse Finance

On April 2 the lending protocol Inverse Finance reported a hack resulting in assets worth $15.6 million being stolen. The protocol team pledged to reimburse users’ losses.

The attacker exploited a vulnerability in the Keep3r price oracle used by Inverse Finance to track token prices. The exploit allowed the hacker to “trick” the protocol — inflating INV quotes and using the asset as collateral on the Anchor Protocol market.

The Bitcoin network mined the 19-millionth coin

On Friday, April 1, miners mined the milestone 19-millionth Bitcoin. It occurred at block 730,002. More than 90% of the total supply of digital gold, capped at 21 million BTC, has now been mined.

MetaMask adds Apple Pay support

In the new mobile wallet update (v4.3.1) there is support for Apple Pay and gasless transactions, as well as a dark theme. Visa and Mastercard credit-card integration for iOS users is enabled through the Wyre technology. The developers say fiat-onramps will be even easier.

Messi signs $20 million deal to promote fan tokens

The footballer Lionel Messi signed a three-year deal to promote the Socios fan-token platform. The contract is worth $20 million. As brand ambassador, Messi will participate in several advertising and educational campaigns.

Socios’ operator — Chiliz — announced the launch of the Chiliz Chain 2.0 testnet this week. The EVM‑compatible network was built in collaboration with Ankr. The network aims to lower costs and speed up transactions, and to enable developers to issue NFTs and fan tokens, create DeFi products and P2E games.

In Fantom network, algorithmic stablecoin USDB will launch

The Fantom project announced the launch of its own stablecoin USDB with high-yield liquidity pools as collateral. The issuer will be Balance, a nonprofit organisation comprised of some members of FantomDAO.

The tokenomics envisage burning FantOHM (FHM) to mint USDB and the reverse process to create FHM backed by assets in Fantom’s treasury.

Russia sees heightened debate around crypto and mining

Deputy Energy Minister Evgeny Grubchak proposed regional mining quotas and the allocation of mining sites at the regional level rather than the federal one. He argued that quotas for free energy capacity used for mining should be aligned with regional development plans.

Ivan Chebeskov, head of the Finance Ministry’s Department of Financial Policy, called sanctions a motivation to develop domestic crypto-market infrastructure.

European Parliament backs mandatory verification of non-custodial wallet users

The European Parliament backed amendments to the information-sharing regime among counterparties that require collecting data on users of non-custodial crypto wallets.

The measure is intended to implement the FATF’s “travel rule.” The clause obliges crypto exchanges and other platforms to verify users of non-custodial wallets when conducting transactions with them. The de minimis principle does not apply to such transfers, so data collection would apply to transactions of any size.

Shiba Inu developers reveal details of the project’s metaverse

The Shiba Inu team revealed details of the SHIB metaverse — The Metaverse. Its land will be split into 100,595 parcels, with prices ranging from 0.2 ETH to 1 ETH. The metaverse will use all tokens in the Shiba Inu ecosystem, including SHIB, LEASH and BONE.

Landowners will generate passive income. The metaverse will also utilise Shiba Inu’s Layer 2 solution — Shibarium.

MicroStrategy raises $205 million secured by its own Bitcoin

MicroStrategy’s subsidiary MacroStrategy secured a loan of $205 million using its own crypto assets as collateral. The loan was issued by U.S. bank Silvergate. The purpose of the loan was to buy Bitcoin.

Blockchain.com valued at $14 billion

The exchange and crypto-wallet provider Blockchain.com closed a funding round for an undisclosed amount. The post-round valuation stood at $14 billion, Bloomberg reported.

Earlier Blockchain.com acquired the over-the-counter platform Altonomy, which specialises in providing liquidity in altcoins. The deal was worth $250 million in cash and stock.

Visa launches NFT education programme

The education programme on developing a business around non-fungible tokens by the payments giant runs for one year and is aimed at artists, musicians, designers and filmmakers.

Ripple co-founder dubbed a “Judas” after call to move Bitcoin to PoS

Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, in partnership with the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and other climate groups launched the “Change the code, not the climate” campaign. Participants earmarked $5 million to push for moving Bitcoin from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake, prompting a storm of reaction from the community.

The White House forecasts $11 billion in extra crypto tax receipts

The estimate appears in a budget proposal through 2032, based on expanded digital asset tax-reporting requirements.

Separately, the U.S. Treasury put forward a proposal to extend to cryptocurrencies the obligation to report foreign accounts with assets above $50,000. Currently the rule does not cover digital currencies.

China to expand CBDC testing program

The People’s Bank of China will expand central bank digital currency (CBDC) testing to more cities. The regulator noted growing transaction volumes with the CBDC and the success of the 2022 Winter Olympics experiment.

Trials were conducted in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xun’anne, Chengdu, Shanghai, Hainan, Changsha, Xi’an, Qingdao, Dalian and the Olympic zone. The listed cities will continue to use the tool.

Also on ForkLog:

• Citibank valued the metaverse market at $13 trillion by 2030.
• Apparel maker Off-White began accepting Bitcoin.
• Binance became a partner of the annual Grammy Awards.
• TIME magazine included The Sandbox, OpenSea and Paxful in its list of the 100 most influential companies in the world.

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