A hacking attack on the stock market and the theft of funds worth $ 3,6 billion

US authorities last week reported the interception bitcoin worth USD 3,6 billion, from the 2016 attack on the stock exchange. MasterCard has announced an increase in emphasis on cryptocurrency consulting, and the Sunday Super Bowl event may, to some extent, be negatively associated with the beginning of 2000.

About the author

Mads Eberhardt, Cryptocurrency Market Analyst, Sax Banks. Cryptocurrency Market Analyst at Saxo Bank. He gained experience as a trader at Bitcoin Suisse AG and founder http://BetterCoins.dk (website taken over by Coinify).

$ 3,6 billion in bitcoin interception

In 2016, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges at the time, Bitfinex, was the victim of a hacker attack on the amount 119 bitcoins, worth approximately USD 72 million at that time. Over the years, hackers have been able to launder some funds, but most of them have been retained at over two thousand bitcoin addresses to which the funds were sent after the attack. However, on February 1, the rest 94 bitcoins were transferred to one address in just an hour and a half. This was quite unexpected as the money had so far been laundered in a more professional way - in small batches. About a week later, on February 8, the answer came as to why the funds were transferred. According to the US Department of Justice, US authorities seized this amount and arrested a couple on charges of conspiracy to launder funds from the Bitfinex attack. US authorities reported that the pair sought to launder bitcoins. As part of the forensic warrant to search the couple's online accounts, an encrypted file containing more than 2 addresses and corresponding private keys associated with the attack was found in the man's cloud, which constituted grounds for the seizure of funds. However, the couple were not charged with the attack on the stock market as such.

Following this press release, the cryptocurrency market slightly depreciated as investors expect 94 bitcoins to be liquidated at some point in the future. However, in our opinion, the seizure of funds will have quite a positive impact on the market as such, as it has shown that cryptocurrencies do not provide a safe haven for criminals. This highly publicized case should deter criminals and encourage authorities to allocate more resources to cryptocurrencies, and thanks to better analytical software and know-how, illegal activities in this area should be made more difficult in the future.

MasterCard will increase the pressure on cryptocurrencies

Global provider of MasterCard payment services he announced yesterday, the employment of over 500 employees in its consulting entity called Data & Services, which already has over 2 people. The employment is partly related to the focus of this department on advisory services in the field of cryptocurrencies, which emphasizes that there is a growing demand for this type of services. Like Visa, MasterCard has been showing interest in cryptocurrencies for several years, leading to the company's recent acquisition of CipherTrace cryptocurrency analytics software and a partnership with Coinbase for the planned NFT platforms.

The Super Bowl is marked by cryptocurrencies

The annual Super Bowl event took place in Los Angeles, California on Sunday, where the Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals. You may ask yourself what this has to do with cryptocurrencies. To answer them, one would have to watch advertisements broadcast during the match, in which cryptocurrency companies were strongly represented. Such entities as Coinbase, FTX, Crypto.com or eToro. Even a Budweiser ad featured an NFT promotion. On the one hand, it underlines that companies in this industry now have the necessary financial capacity to broadcast these advertisements in order to attract the attention of a wider audience. On the other hand, during the Super Bowl in 2000, as many as 17 advertised their services dot-com companies. Only a few years later, most of these companies have filed for bankruptcy, so the Sunday party evokes negative associations from the past. As such, the cryptocurrency events during the Super Bowl can potentially be viewed both positively and negatively.