When blockchain technology was first brought to the public’s attention, it was lauded on many fronts as “unhackable.” While there are many benefits to blockchain worth noting already, we probably still haven’t seen what its ultimate potential will be. One thing is certain though: It is not unhackable. That reality has been illustrated with increasing clarity to the tune of around $2 billion in cryptocurrency stolen by hackers since 2017. Recent attacks have seen a shift in focus from public networks, such as the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains, to private networks built for the use of large corporations. In theory, …
Twelve months ago, the total value of cryptocurrency locked in staking programs was barely more than $1 billion. Today, there is $58 billion locked in decentralized finance, or DeFi. The adoption of DeFi has been a sea change that’s helped push the crypto industry into the mainstream, but it’s hardly the only one. Mainstream institutions including MicroStrategy and Tesla have poured billions of dollars into Bitcoin — and some have been buying the dip — while nonfungible tokens have evolved from CryptoKitties and CypherPunks to an artistic medium pulling in millions in bids for a new generation of digital artists …
United Kingdom-based crypto fund Nickel Digital Asset Management released a survey of 100 wealth managers and global institutional investors to find out the biggest investor concerns associated with crypto. The survey features respondents from the United States, France, Germany, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, who collectively own $275 billion in assets under management. Conducted online from May to June 2021, the survey found low confidence among institutional investors in crypto security, with 76% of respondents citing concerns about the security of custodial services as one factor stopping them from investing in crypto. Respondents also identified the regulatory …
Bitcoin (BTC) has made global headlines again because of the recent Twitter hack, but this time, we need to work harder to protect Bitcoin’s integrity and the progress the industry has made. The coordinated social engineering attack compromised the Twitter accounts of high-profile figures and organizations like Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Tesla founder Elon Musk, Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, former United States President Barack Obama and 2020 U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden, among many others, to ask for Bitcoin in fake “giveaway” posts. When the story broke, the New York Times, BBC and other mainstream media outlets were quick to …
The common narrative around the prevailing threats to mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies is that regulators will put the kibosh on their legality, it has to get much easier for “ordinary” people to use, and the magnitude of its volatility has to be tempered. All of these are true. But there’s something perhaps just as consequential: scams, hacks, fraudulent exchanges, dumps and the like. Why? Every attack leaves a scar. And the scars are mounting fast. According to a study by Chainalysis, scammers got away with $14 billion worth of crypto in 2021, which represents hundreds of thousands — maybe millions …