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Crypto Hackers Stole Half as Much in August as They Did in July, Says Immunefi

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Good news: August saw a significant decrease in cryptocurrency losses due to hacks and fraud, according to a recent report from Immunefi. Total losses amounted to $15,082,000 across five incidents, marking the lowest monthly total year-to-date and a 94.5% decrease from July.

As Decrypt reported at the time, July saw cross-chain DeFi protocol Li.Fi losing about $11 million to a hack. Reports indicate that hackers stole more than twice as much cryptocurrency in the first half of 2024—based on the U.S. dollar value of the coins—compared to the first six months of 2023.

The two largest incidents this month involved the Ronin Network, a gaming-focused blockchain, which lost $12 million, and Nexera, a DeFi protocol, which incurred a loss of $1.5 million. Notably, the $12 million stolen from Ronin Network was later recovered after white hat hackers who discovered and exploited the vulnerability returned the funds.

Despite the lower losses in August, the year-to-date total for 2024 stands at $1,210,741,330 lost to hacks and rug pulls across 154 incidents, a 15.5% increase from the same period in 2023.

“Most of the losses in 2024 are attributed to attacks targeting CeFi infrastructure,” Gonçalo Magalhães, Head of Security at Immunefi told Decrypt. “We’ve known for a while that infrastructure compromises tend to be the most devastating hacks in the cryptocurrency world.”

All reported hacks in August occurred in the DeFi sector, with no CeFi losses recorded.

“In DeFi, most losses are due to vulnerabilities in smart contracts, whereas in CeFi, attacks typically target the exchange infrastructure and focus on exploiting private keys,” Magalhães said.

Ethereum and BNB Chain were the only chains targeted for hacks in August.

“Ethereum and BNB Chain are consistently the most targeted chains due to the high value of funds locked within them,” he added. “Bad actors specifically target these chains because the potential payoff from a successful exploit is greater.”

Edited by Stacy Elliott.

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Blockchain

Eclipse launches public mainnet of first SVM L2 on Ethereum

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Eclipse Foundation announced on Nov. 7 that Eclipse, a Solana Virtual Machine-powered layer-2 on Ethereum, had launched its public mainnet.

The milestone is a key step in Eclipse’s quest to bring the best of both Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) to users, Eclipse Foundation said in a press release.

Vijay Chetty, CEO of Eclipse, noted that bridging these leading networks for decentralized applications and finance could drive a new wave of ecosystem development. Key areas likely to see growth from increased dApp activity include DeFi, consumer applications, and gaming.

“Eclipse is uniquely positioned as the first solution to bridge the gap between Solana and Ethereum, offering a powerful platform that caters to both communities. Our goal is to empower developers from both ecosystems to build and scale their dApps like never before, unlocking new opportunities across the largest networks in the industry.”

Vijay Chetty.

Eclipse’s launch of the layer-2 public mainnet follows its developer-focused mainnet release in October. Since then, the platform has expanded its ecosystem by integrating projects such as Orca, Nucleus, and Save.

Developers on Eclipse can utilize Solana’s parallel execution capabilities and Ethereum’s liquidity and security, alongside access to Ethereum’s vast user community and asset base. Eclipse’s architecture enables developers to leverage the Solana Virtual Machine for scaling and enhanced user experiences.

As a result, Eclipse aims to eliminate the previous fragmentation that required developers to choose between the two ecosystems.



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cryptocurrency

TRUMP, MAGA, and other Trump-themed tokens crash after election day

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Donald Trump-themed meme coins TRUMP, MAGA, TREMP, and STRUMP have tanked, with their total market capitalization down over 21% on the day, after Trump secured a victory in the U.S. election.

MAGA (TRUMP), the largest Trump-themed meme coin in terms of market cap fell 50.7% over the past 24 hours, exchanging hands at $1.71 when writing. The altcoin’s market cap fell from $212 million seen on Nov. 6 to $79 million when writing.

MAGA Hat (MAGA) a meme token inspired by Trump’s iconic red hat worn during his political campaigns also collapsed by 51% with its market cap falling to $39 million. 

Dark MAGA (DMAGA) which saw the highest gains on Nov. 5, climbing from $0.008 to $0.0018 overnight. The meme coin has since plunged by 62% from its pre-election level and was trading at $0.0045, wiping out over $13.5 million from its market cap. Similarly, Super Trump (STRUMP) also faced a sharp drop of 54.9%, with its market cap shedding $11 million.

Other popular meme coins that previously capitalized on Trump’s presidential victory but have crashed at press time, include Doland Tremp (TREMP), TRUMPCOIN, TRUMP 47 (47), and Pepe Trump (PTRUMP) which suffered losses between 50-65%.

Traders seemed to have sold the news, a familiar trend for meme coins, which often experience sharp sell-offs after hype peaks—just as with Dogecoin (DOGE), the industry’s first and largest meme coin.

Dogecoin’s meteoric rise leading up to Elon Musk’s Saturday Night Live appearance in May 2021 became a classic case of traders selling the news. DOGE rallied to an all-time high of $0.73 ahead of the May 8 airing date as Musk, an avid Dogecoin supporter, teased his role on SNL. 

However, the hype fizzled quickly during and after the broadcast, as traders rushed to offload their holdings with the price of DOGE dropping over 30% within hours. At current prices, the token remains 74% below its all-time high.

This pattern also seems evident in PolitiFi tokens, which are often referred to as “event coins,” as they move in tandem with political developments. However, the downturn comes despite Trump’s victory, which could mean the hype around this meme coin subset is waning.

A likely scenario is that a lot of the liquidity from these PolitiFi tokens is flowing into Bitcoin (BTC) and other altcoins as the flagship crypto has been printing new highs over the past day fueling hopes that the bull market is starting.

Prominent altcoins like Ethena (ENA) and Raydium (RAY) have posted double-digit gains, while the overall meme coin market is up over 13%, suggesting that PolitiFi tokens are facing an isolated sell-off now that the elections are over.



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Immutable receives SEC Wells notice over 2021 IMX token sales

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United States Securities and Exchange has targeted blockchain gaming platform Immutable potentially targeting its listing and private sales of the IMX token in 2021.

According to a Nov. 1 statement from Immutable, the SEC issued an “accelerated” Wells notice following an initial interaction where the SEC informed the company that a Wells notice would be sent “within the week,” but delivered it “within hours” instead.

Immutable highlighted the vague nature of the notice, stating that it “simply cited statutory provisions” with “fewer than 20 words of material explanation” and offered little meaningful detail about the investigation’s focus. The company believes the agency’s claims could be targeting the “listing and private sales” of its native IMX token in 2021.

Shortly after issuing the notice, the SEC reportedly engaged in a phone call with the firm, raising concerns over a 2021 blog post in which Immutable detailed Huobi Ventures’ early investment in IMX at a pre-launch price of $0.10 issued at a “$10 pre-100:1 split”, stating that there had been no “exchange of value” in the deal.

Immutable disputes this claim, arguing that the investment was, in fact, legitimate and backed by “real consideration.” 

The firm added it is “confident in its position” regarding the classification of the IMX token, pushing back against what it described as the SEC “indiscriminately claiming that tokens across the industry are securities.” 

Immutable called for a “robust conversation to clarify facts” and expressed its willingness to challenge the SEC’s enforcement approach if necessary.

Reacting to the news, Immutable co-founder Robbie Ferguson reiterated the company’s position to “defend digital ownership in gaming” by joining contemporaries like Robinhood and OpenSea in defending against the SEC’s claims.

While a Wells notice does not guarantee that formal action will be taken, the development came as a blow to Immutable’s IMX token which was down more than 14% at press time.

The SEC, led by Chair Gary Gensler, has consistently gone after crypto firms for allegedly skirting securities laws. This has also sparked pushback from U.S. policymakers, who say Gensler is creating confusion in the digital asset space by introducing terms like “crypto asset security.”

Yet the regulator remains unfazed, recently issuing a Wells notice to Crypto.com. In response, Crypto.com filed a lawsuit challenging the commission.





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