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Troubled Cryptocurrency Lender Celsius Has Hired New Insolvency Lawyers, Wall Street Reports

Mark Brennan
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Struggling cryptocurrency lender Celsius has hired new restructuring lawyers, according to a report on Wall Street Journal

According to the Wall Street Journal, cryptocurrency lender Celsius has reportedly placed new attorneys at the forefront of its reorganization process. This move comes less than a month after the company halted withdrawals for customers.

The Wall Street Journal cited sources with knowledge of the situation in reporting that Celsius had engaged attorneys from the firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP to replace the attorneys from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP who had been retained a month ago in the aftermath of Celsius suspending operations.

According to the website of the corporation, the company located in New Jersey went bankrupt in June due to strains on its liquidity, which resulted in 1.7 million members being locked out of their accounts.

Throughout the period leading up to the halt, Celsius provided its clients with high-yield loans of up to 18 percent on deposits. Celsius insists that its users would continue to accumulate incentives during the cryptocurrency’s hiatus.

Customers have been unable to access their accounts for many weeks as a result of the freezing of their respective accounts. In May, Celsius reported having assets of $11.8 billion.

The company said exactly one month ago:

“We are taking this necessary action for the benefit of our entire community in order to stabilize liquidity and operations while we take steps to preserve and protect assets. We are working diligently to meet our obligations.”

Although Celsius Network has not declared bankruptcy, unlike Voyager Capital, there are growing concerns about its ability to continue operating, and its partnership with Kirkland & Ellis LLP may signal a change in overall policy.

In related news, last month’s suspension of withdrawals by Celsius Network sent the cryptocurrency market into a downward tailspin. Additionally, it just settled the balance owed to DeFi Protocol MakerDAO. On July 7, the last $41.2 million was paid, and it was done in DAI. Celsius was able to release the $448 million in collateralized debt with the help of this repayment.

Cardano Whale Investors Accumulate Almost 80 Million ADA in One Month in Preparation for Vasil Launch

Lele Jima
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Cardano Whale Investors Accumulate Almost 80 Million ADA in One Month in Preparation for Vasil Launch

Large Cardano investors have been taking advantage of the massive dip in ADA prices to increase their holdings in the asset class. 

Fresh data from on-chain cryptocurrency analytics provider Santiment shows that large Cardano investors, especially owners of addresses holding between 10,000 and 100,000 ADA, have recently grown their portfolio. 

Per Santiment, addresses in this category added a massive 79.1 million ADA, worth around $37.84 million, to their respective portfolios, in the last 30 days.  

“As #Cardano’s price performance has stayed particularly underwhelming in 2022, addresses holding 10k – 100k $ADA are now accumulating. They’ve added 79.1m $ADA to their collective bags in 30 days,” Santiment tweeted today. 

ADA’s Price Dip Creates Opportunity for Whale Investors

Recall that in the last 30 days, ADA has been badly hit by the ongoing crypto winter. The cryptocurrency’s value has plummeted 27% within this period. Thus, causing panic among small ADA investors. 

However, large holders see the price dip as the perfect opportunity to boost their ADA holdings, in preparation for an imminent surge. 

Aside from the massive accumulation of ADA among addresses holding between 10,000 and 100,000 Cardano coins, Santiment noted that whale addresses have stopped dumping the asset class. 

“Meanwhile, 100k – 10m whales have ceased their dumping,” Santiment adds. 

Upcoming Vasil Hard Fork Propels Whale Accumulation

The massive accumulation of a particular cryptocurrency asset usually suggests investors’ confidence in the asset. The move is usually followed by a rally in the coin’s value at any slight opportunity. 

It is not surprising to see whale investors increase their ADA holdings given that positive developments are around the corner for Cardano. 

As reported by TheCryptoBasic, Input Output Global (IOG), the firm responsible for Cardano’s research and development, will be launching the long-awaited Vasil Hard Fork by the end of this month. 

Report: Hackers Steal Nearly $2 Billion in Cryptocurrencies in Q1 2022, as Ethereum And Solana Suffers More 

Mark Brennan
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Report: Hackers Steal Nearly $2 Billion in Cryptocurrencies in Q1 2022, as Ethereum And Solana Suffers More 

Cryptocurrency hackers are not relenting in their quest to steal funds from unsuspecting victims. 


Since the inception of the nascent industry, tens of billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies have been stolen by these actors.

These actions have continued to dent the reputation of the asset class, prompting industry players to launch different measures to mitigate crypto heists. However, these solutions have not stopped illicit actors from perpetrating cryptocurrency heists.

According to a report by Atlas VPN, cryptocurrency hackers stole $1.97 billion worth of digital currencies in the first half of 2022 alone.

Ethereum Attacks Represent Over $1B 

Hackers Steal Nearly $2 Billion in Cryptocurrencies
Image source: https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2022/07/almost-2-billion-in-crypto-was-stolen.html

Atlas VPN noted that the largest crypto heist this year remains the Ronin attack reported earlier this year, which saw a whopping $600 million worth of investors’ funds stolen.

The Ethereum blockchain has been a major recipient of hackers’ activities throughout the year. Notably, out of the $1.97 billion worth of digital currencies stolen across various blockchains, over $1 billion of the total sum was siphoned from various crypto projects on the Ethereum blockchain in 32 events.

Solana is the second blockchain that has suffered the most attacks. Per the report, multiple hacks stole at least $380 million from the Solana ecosystem in the first half of the year.

“This makes Ethereum and Solana two of the biggest contributors to these hacks,” Digital Information World noted in a report.

Hackers Dent Cryptos’ Reputation

Cryptocurrencies are tipped to expose investors to numerous opportunities, including turning an average income earner into an overnight millionaire.

Despite the numerous opportunities associated with crypto, bad actors are still denting the image of the nascent industry by wreaking havoc on investors via theft.

These actions have continued to hinder regulators from establishing favorable regulations for cryptos.

Tactics Used By Crypto Hackers

These hackers continue to deploy various illicit tactics to perpetrate these acts, defrauding investors of their crypto assets.

Aside from external attacks, most cryptocurrency projects conduct these hacks themselves via an inside job referred to as rug pulls.

These hackers usually exploit code in the project to drain liquidity and most times leave the project dead.

More cryptocurrency heist tactics are being unveiled on a daily basis, as hackers are not in any mood to stop taking advantage of unsuspecting victims.

TheCryptoBasic reported today that scammers recently launched a fake Ripple giveaway promotion to steal investors’ XRP coins.

Bitcoin Shrimps Have Added 52k BTC In Just Over A Month: Santiment

Albert Brown
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Bitcoin Shrimps Have Added 52k BTC In Just Over A Month: Santiment

 

BTC shrimps go on an accumulation spree.



In a tweet on Saturday, Sentiment Feed reveals that Bitcoin shrimps with 10 to 100 BTC in their wallet have been aggressively buying the dip, adding 52k BTC to their bags in five weeks.

“Bitcoin addresses holding between 10 to 100 BTC have been stacking Satoshis on this dip, and have collectively upped their holdings to 4.29M BTC. In the past 5 weeks, as prices have retraced -27%, they have added 52K more coins to their wallets,” Santiment tweeted.

 

It is worth noting that Glassnode had also reported previously that whales and shrimps had been steadily accumulating the leading digital asset. According to the report, whales now hold 45.6% of the supply.

Additionally, as previously reported by The Crypto Basic, Bitcoin outflow from exchanges is at levels never seen before. These make a bullish case for the asset and reflect the growing belief in the asset despite the difficult year.

It is worth noting that June came close to being the worst month on record for the leading digital asset in terms of price movement. In June, Bitcoin’s price dropped by over 37%.

However, investors may have to brace for more pain as reports indicate more selling pressure ahead. For example, The Crypto Basic recently reported that Mt Gox looks set to release 150k BTC into the markets to compensate victims of the 2014 exploit that saw the exchange lose 850,000 BTC.

Bitcoin is trading at the $21,640 price point, down 0.73% in the last 24 hours but up 13.11% compared to the last seven days. Notably, Bitcoin proponents like Lark Davis believe this would be the last chance for some to get on board the Bitcoin train. Moreover, despite the downward trend in the price, the asset class continues to see growing adoption from institutions and governments.

AI Beaten By LUNC: Crypto Firm Losses $20 Million Trying To Short Terra Luna Classic (LUNC)

Albert Brown
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AI Beaten By LUNC: Crypto Firm Losses $20 Million Trying To Short Terra Luna Classic (LUNC)

 

A South Korean Crypto Firm Has Lost 99% Of Its Assets Trying To Short LUNC.



The Korean-based crypto investment firm has reportedly been liquidated and lost almost all of its customer’s assets, a local news outlet reported.

The losses associated with LUNC (formerly Terra LUNA) appear far from over. While a lot of people lost billions when Terra collapsed, another group is now losing their money through futures trading on LUNC. Latest reports indicate that a crypto firm based in South Korea has been liquidated, leading to a loss of 99% of its customers’ assets amounting to $20 million.

The firm, named Uprise, employed Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate futures trades on LUNC. These are usually high-yield trades that attract a hoard of big-money investors. The company is backed by banks, rich individuals, corporations, and venture capital firms that stake high on the trades. The AI trading facilitation by Uprise is called the Heybit service.

AI Beaten By LUNC

Apparently, the trading AI used by Uprise made a costly miscalculation when it executed a short on LUNC in a futures trade. As nothing fell in a straight line, the system got liquidated again and again due to LUNC abnormal price pumps along the way. The company’s AI model fell apart when the values plummeted from $60 down to less than a cent losing all of the customers’ funds amounting to $20 million were wiped out. Uprise claims to have incurred a $3 million loss on its part.

Suspension Of Services

Following the catastrophic liquidation, Uprise has since moved to suspend all trading operations on its platform. However, the company is yet to issue an official statement regarding the matter. However, an official from the firm made a bit of a statement concerning the trading suspension.

He said,

“Due to great unexpected volatility in the market, there has been damage to customer assets. We plan to finalize the report on our virtual asset business soon.”

Uprise is also reported to be working up a plan to compensate the investors who lost the $20 million. This will allow the firm to resume operations without hindrances.

Xumm Wallet Warns As Scammers Launch Fake Ripple Giveaway Promotion to Steal Unsuspecting Victims’ XRP 

Mark Brennan
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Xumm Wallet Warns As Scammers Launch Fake Ripple Giveaway Promotion to Steal Unsuspecting Victims’ XRP 

Scammers have continued to launch different tactics to cart away digital currencies from unsuspecting victims. 


Xumm, a non-custodial wallet on the XRP Ledger, has warned XRP holders of a new tactic launched by malefactors to steal their Ripple coins.

According to an announcement by the cryptocurrency wallet provider, scammers claiming to be Ripple are sending emails to potential victims.

The content of the message read that a whopping 500 million XRP will be distributed to XRP Ledger holders while luring these users to a website that looks like the initiative is officially from Ripple.

scammers stealing ripple

A closer look at the website will reveal that the entire move is a scam, as the domain name is tweaked to mislead people. The “i” in “Ripple” is replaced with another character, which will most likely be ignored if not properly looked at.

There is a sign-in page on the website, apps.rlpple.com, where potential victims will be required to connect their Xumm, Trezor, or Ledger wallet, to receive a portion of the fund.

Fortunately, Xumm noted that it has blocked the malicious website from accessing its wallets.

However, if users ignore the warning signs and log in with their wallets, the user will be prompted to sign a “SetRegularKey” transaction.

“If a user were to engage, they would authorize another XRPL account (owned by the scammers) to send transactions on your behalf,” Xumm said in a statement.

Once this is done, the malefactors will proceed to empty the victims’ accounts, Xumm added.

The XRPL-based wallet, however, added some safety tips to keep XRP holders safe from being the victim of crypto heists.

“NEVER SIGN A TRANSACTION IF YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND WHAT IT WILL DO! If you signed a Set Regular Key without explicitly wanting to authorize the other account on your account, please remove it ASAP.”

Other Scam Tactics

As cryptocurrencies become increasingly popular, billions of dollars worth of crypto assets have been stolen and these bad actors do not seem to be in any mood to stop these malicious activities.

These bad actors have launched different methods to steal crypto investors’ funds. In May, TheCryptoBasic reported that scammers created fake Terra (LUNA) tokens and airdropped large amounts of them into the wallets of popular crypto players, including Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin.

The idea is to make unsuspecting victims believe that the fake tokens were created by TerraForm Labs, as part of efforts to compensate investors for their losses.

Once many are convinced, they will be prompted to invest in cryptocurrency with the hope that its value will soar in the future.

However, the creators of the malicious cryptocurrency plan to carry out a rug pull on investors of the fake LUNA tokens.

Binance To Exclude 13 Spot Bitcoin Pairs From Trading Volume Calculations As Wash Trading Spikes After Zero Fee BTC Trading

Mark Brennan
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Binance To Exclude 13 Spot Bitcoin Pairs From Trading Volume Calculations As Wash Trading Spikes After Zero Fee BTC Trading

 

Binance sees a wash trading spike putting the decision to make trading on BTC pairs free into question.

Binance, in a blog post late Friday, has revealed that it would be excluding 13 spot BTC pairs from trading volume calculations as a rise in wash trading is observed following the announcement of zero fees on BTC pairs.

“Think this is due to zero fees and people trying to gain VIP tiers. We will exclude Btc trading from VIP calculations. Remove all incentives to wash trade. Announcement with details coming shortly,” Binance’s Changpeng Zhao tweeted an hour before the latest announcement responding to an observation that $3 billion worth of Bitcoin had been purchased in just 2 hours with no effect on the BTC price.

 

Wash trading is a practice where investors buy and sell the same financial instrument simultaneously. The practice is illegal as it can allow investors to misrepresent the demand for a particular asset.

Following the decision, Binance’s CZ took to Twitter to create a poll to see if users still wanted zero fees on Bitcoin pairs revealing that maintaining free trading on Bitcoin would take a lot of work. However, he added that the exchange was willing to tough it out if the community decided it should. 

“So, it’s a lot of work to bring you 0 fee trading. We won’t have to do all these work if you don’t want it. Let’s see what the poll say. We listen to our users,” CZ tweeted.

 

At the time of writing, most users have voted for the free trading on BTC pairs to stay, with 66% voting yes.

Binance launched free trading on Bitcoin pairs on Friday as it celebrated its 5th anniversary. Notably, the move is set to heat up the competition between crypto exchanges.

It is worth noting that Binance is one of the few exchanges with plans to expand despite the crypto market downturn. Competitors like Coinbase and Gemini have had to downsize to cut costs even as trading activities decline, putting extra strain on exchange revenue.

Major ETH Whale Accumulates Whopping 1 Trillion Shiba Inu, Worth $11 Million in 24 Hours

Zabi
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Major ETH Whale Accumulates Whopping 1 Trillion Shiba Inu, Worth $11 Million in 24 Hours

Key Ethereum investor named “Gimli” scooped up an astounding amount of Shiba Inu (SHIB) in the past 24 hours.



Shiba Inu makes it to the list of top 10 most traded tokens among the 2000 biggest ETH whales in the last 24 hours as the 227th biggest ETH Whale has purchased a whopping total of 1 trillion Shiba Inu (SHIB) tokens.

According to WhaleStats, the 227th biggest ETH Whale titled “Gimli” has bought a whopping total of 1 trillion Shiba Inu (SHIB) tokens, worth $11,190,000 ($11.19M) through four (4) separate transactions. All four transactions were of an equal amount. In each transaction, the whale has added 250,000,000,000 (250B) SHIB, worth $2,797,500 ($2.79M) to her portfolio. Etherscan confirms the WhaleStats data.

eth whale buying 1T shib

The data provided by WhaleStats further reports that “Gimli” now holds 58 ERC-20 tokens in her wallet. Among those, Shiba Inu is the biggest ERC-20 token holding position by dollar value, followed by Chainlink (LINK), and Enjin Coin (ENJ).

The ETH Whale now holds a total of 1,140,771,007,809 (1.14T) SHIB, worth $12,731,004 ($12.73M) in her wallet, Etherscan.io reports.

Please note that this may not be actually buying from the market or exchanges rather the whale might have shifted shib coins from other wallets but the thing worth noting is that Gimli is actually holding 1 Trillion shib.

Impact on SHIB Price:

The massive accumulation from ETH Whale does not significantly impact SHIB’s price. At press time, Shiba Inu is seen trading at the price of $0.00001124, showing almost no change over the last 24 hours but up over 10% in 7 days, with a 24-hour trading volume of $544,644,110 ($544.64M).

Do Kwon Refutes Claims That Terra Form Labs (TFL) Has “Special Privileges” Over LUNC Governance

Albert Brown
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Do Kwon Refutes Claims That Terra Form Labs (TFL) Has “Special Privileges” Over LUNC Governance

 

A Twitter spat is brewing between Terra’s Do Kwon and another user who shot out a strong question at Kwon.



Going by the handle “THORchain.BULL,” the user wanted to know why a governance vote earlier passed to have the LUNC delegation re-enabled is yet to be executed. According to this user, the fact that governance on LUNC is yet to be resumed means TFL still has all the control over it. Apparently, a LUNC market cap to the tune of $700 million is still left with no notable governance.

Kwon: Proposer To Work With Validators

Do Kwon is known to often engage in spats with users on Twitter – sometimes in a rather abrasive manner. This time around, he chose the diplomatic stance. Replying to the claims, Kwon explained that TFL has no absolute control over LUNC and that whoever came up with the proposal to resume delegation should coordinate with validators to forge the way forward and upgrade the network.

do kwon replying to thorchain bull

Image source: Twitter

Won’t Pay Pylon Gateway Users

Another user came at Do Kwon with a rather sharp query. This user sought to know why Do Kwon and his company haven’t paid Pylon Gateway users. Pylon Gateway is a decentralized platform that facilitates the launching of utility tokens and governance systems.

Kwon responded, saying that indexing on Pylon Gateway is a public and not a private service. The tokens involved are from the community and Terra 2.0 doesn’t benefit TFL in any way. This echoes an earlier claim by TFL that Terra 2.0 would be under total control of the public.

When asked why TFL has gone for weeks without issuing updates on Luna V2 airdropping and indexing for Pylon users, Do Kwon responded rather aggressively, telling the user to submit his own code for auditing if he didn’t like TFL’s speed of solving issues.

pylon users 1

Plyon 2

Image source: Twitter

Kwon As A Controversial Figure

These recent twitter clashes aren’t the first such incidents involved Do Kwon. He has been involved in countless such exchanges in the past. At one time, he was quoted as saying that he lost all his money when Terra collapsed.

Developers Can Now Build Layer-1 Smart Contracts on Ripple’s XRP Ledger

Lele Jima
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Developers Can Now Build Layer-1 Smart Contracts on Ripple’s XRP Ledger

 

Ripple XRP Labs Launches L1 Smart Contract Functionality on the XRP Ledger.



Ripple’s XRPL Labs, the software development company of the XRP Ledger, noted recently that it has rolled out Hooks Builder, a web-based environment, that will allow developers to test, debug, and deploy Layer-1 smart contracts on XRPL. 

Wietse Wind, a leading XRP Ledger developer, also shared the development. 

“One of the biggest things for the XRP Ledger (but I’m biased ). Today, the world can build ‘layer 1’ smart contracts on the XRP Ledger, with our now published browser-based ‘Hooks Builder,’ on our live ‘Hooks Testnet.’ All the Hooks source code is now public + PR to rippled,” Wind said in a tweet. 

Ripple Silently Launches Hook Testnet v2

According to a statement by XRPL Labs, the initiative resulted from efforts that started two years ago. The move is part of Ripple’s plans to enable smart contract functionality on the XRP Ledger.  

After publishing a blog post titled “XRPL Labs is working on the HOOKS amendment for the XRP Ledger” on July 30, 2020, the company embarked on a series of activities to ensure the solution was launched successfully.  

XRPL Labs’ resilience toward enabling L1 smart contract functionality paid off in early 2021, which led to the silent launch of Hooks Testnet v2. 

“We are VERY proud to announce that we have now squashed two years of work into one commit and submitted a Pull Request to the new ‘Hooks’ branch of the `rippled` repository. We’re ready to kick off the discussion testing & audits to turn Hooks into an amendment, ready for prime time,

To allow everyone to get familiar with Hooks, build them, test them, share them, and break them, we also worked with great people at @equilibrium_co. We are also announcing the Hooks Builder. A web-based development environment, allowing devs to build, test, deploy, trigger & debug.” XRPL Labs stated recently. 

Currently, the XRPL Foundation currently houses the solution, including Hooks Builder, Hooks source code, and helper libraries. 

Hooks’ Features

With Hooks, developers can influence transaction behavior and flow using Hooks’ code. The user-developer will need to define the code in the XRPL account. Thus, enabling the transaction logic required. 

It is noteworthy that developers can write Hooks code in any programming language. This would establish more flexibility in executing smart contracts on the XRP Ledger. 

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