The hacker escaped with $ 610 million after breaking the cryptocurrency protocol

The cryptocurrency protocol was hacked, the hacker escaped with $ 610 million, but the assets were later returned. The US Senate passed the infrastructure bill without amending the cryptocurrency regulations. In addition, Coinbase published its best quarterly result ever.

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).

Return of $ 610 million worth of cryptocurrencies stolen by a hacker

There was a successful hacking attack last week on Poly Network - blockchain interoperability protocol; the hacker stole cryptocurrencies worth $ 610 million in this way. The Poly Network protocol enables simultaneous operation (interoperability) of many blockchain technologies, such as Ethereum and Binance Chain. Interoperability is usually a complex process, making such protocols the target of hackers. Considering the value of stolen crypto assets - $ 610 million - it was one of the biggest attacks in the industry. For comparison, considering only the fiat value without the impact on the cryptocurrency market, the famous attack on Mt. Gox for 2014 was valued at approximately $ 460 million. In the first days after the Poly Network attack, its ramifications were in some respects dramatically trivialized as the hacker started return funds to the protocol. At this point, all funds in the relevant cryptocurrencies have been returned. According to Poly Network, the attack carried out the so-called "White hacker"that is, it was made with good intentions. However, some believe that the funds were returned only because the hacker was unable to safely trade them in exchange for fiat currency without leaving any traces of his or her real identity being traced. This attack showed how sensitive the crypto market is still and how much risk it carries.

US infrastructure bill unamended

He has been an important topic for many weeks US infrastructure bill. This project essentially aims to thoroughly regulate the cryptocurrency market by extending the definition of brokers to potentially force miners, validators and third party developers to comply with "know your customer" procedures (know-your-customer, KYC) that they simply cannot guarantee. Last week, a group of senators drafted an amendment to the bill, explicitly excluding miners, validators and developers from the definition of brokers. The definition of brokers contained in the act would then apply only to actual brokers, e.g. Cryptocurrency exchanges. During the vote, Senator Richard Shelby blocked the possibility of voting on individual amendments, including the amendment on cryptocurrencies, as he was not satisfied with the inclusion of military expenditure in the draft. Senator Shelby later reported on Twitter that it actually supports the Cryptocurrency Amendment. The infrastructure bill will now be submitted to the House of Representatives. This means that the crypto market has one more chance to change the design as the House of Representatives may amend the draft cryptocurrency regulations. Time will tell if this will happen. It is projected to act at the earliest will come into force in 2023

Coinbase's 2021Q XNUMX results better than expected.

Coinbase, the premier publicly traded crypto-asset company, released its results for the second quarter of 2021 Both in terms of revenues and net income, the company significantly exceeded analysts' expectations. Coinbase has obtained revenues of $ 2,2 billion, exceeding the forecasted by analysts' consensus value of 1,78 billion USD. Most of Coinbase's revenue comes from transaction fees, particularly those related to retail. Retail turnover generated just over $ 1,8 billion of the company's total revenues, while institutional customers provided just over $ 100 million - even considering that their turnover volume was more than twice that of retail customers. It can therefore be seen that the company's good results largely depend on retail trade. As more and more banks and brokers arrive on the market looking to allow retail clients to trade cryptocurrencies, Coinbase's high trading fees are expected to come under considerable pressure, which could lower revenue from this source even with volume unchanged. As part of the revenue generated, the company had a solid net income of $ 1,61 billion, compared with analyst forecasts of $ 569 million. In the first quarter of 2021, the company achieved net income of $ 771 million. Together with 22 other companies, Coinbase is part of ours a basket of cryptocurrency stocksthat offers exposure to this industry.