Hacker to launder $27.2M, State of Avalanche, TIME-as-currency Battle Royale

Daily Crypto, Blockchain & Web3 Update 2023-02-01

Cryptocurrency

Lazarus attempt to launder additional $27.2M of funds stolen from Harmony bridge hack

On-chain analysis shows that North Korean hackers responsible for Harmony’s Horizon bridge hack spent the weekend attempting to move some of the illicit funds.

Using Railgun, a smart contract system that initiates what is known as “Zero Knowledge Proof,” the hackers attempted to move the illicit funds through six different exchanges, several of which were notified over the weekend. 

At least two of the exchanges, Binance and Huobi, were able to move fast and freeze at least a portion of the laundered funds. 

Binance Partners With Mastercard to Launch Prepaid Crypto Card in Brazil (2 minute read)

Binance has partnered with Mastercard to launch a prepaid crypto card in Brazil. The card will be available to all Binance users in Brazil with a valid national ID. It will allow them to make payments and pay bills with 13 cryptocurrencies. Binance will charge a 0.9% fee and offer up to 8% in cashback for transactions involving crypto. There will be no ATM withdrawal fee. The card is now in testing and will be widely available in the coming weeks.

Elon Musk Wants Twitter Payments System to Accommodate Crypto (1 minute read)

Twitter is designing a payments system. It will originally be for fiat currencies, but cryptocurrency capabilities may be added later. Dogecoin spiked following the announcement.

Blockchain

Avalanche network records 3.4% growth in Q4 2022 (2 minute read)

Several subnet upgrades were launched during this period while the average daily transaction number increased.

The average active daily addresses recorded a 3.4% growth from 2022 Q3’s 46,460 and increased to 48,023 on Dec.31, 2022. This number also indicates a 34.7% year-over-year growth.

The Avalanche team also launched two subnets Dexalot and XanaChain were launched on Sept. 30, 2022, and Nov. 18, 2022, respectively. There are some interesting upcoming subnets, such as DOS Chain which is he first zero gas fee subnet on Avalanche. Several subnet upgrades including Elastic Validation and Avalanche Warp Messaging (AWM) went live during the quarter.

Bridge Platform LayerZero Denies Allegations It Kept ‘Backdoor’ Secret (3 minute read)

LayerZero's co-founder Bryan Pellegrino has denied accusations from bridging service Nomad that it covered up the existence of a critical 'backdoor' vulnerability in its code. Nomad claims that LayerZero can bypass security controls and pass data between blockchains without anyone's permission. The ability allows LayerZero to steal or move around funds locked up with platforms that use its bridging services with default settings. Pellegrino acknowledges the backdoor capabilities but denies that LayerZero ever tried to hide them. He claims that other bridges, including Nomad, have similar access capabilities

Web3 Gaming

MetaDOS, a next-gen Battle Royale game opens its Closed Alpha Test application

The Battle Royale Game using time-as-currency concept has just opened its Alpha Test application form.

⏳ Timeline 

• Registration: From 2AM (UTC) January 18, 2023 to February 6, 2023.

• Testing:  From 2AM (UTC) February 8, 2023 to February 22, 2023.

Find all social channels here: https://dos.me/MetaDOS