STFIL, the Filecoin liquid staking protocol, believes its core technical team is being investigated by the Chinese police. The STFIL team said it also recently detected abnormal and unscheduled upgrades to the protocol. During the core technical team’s detention, FIL tokens worth over million were transferred to an unknown external address. Lawyers Engaged to […]
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NFT Giant Opensea Retrenches an Unknown Number of Employees
Opensea recently retrenched an unknown number of employees as part of what the CEO Devin Finzer describes as a rebuilding exercise. According to the CEO, taking this step helps Opensea build a foundation which enables it to innovate faster.
Smaller Team With Direct Connection to Users
Opensea, one of the largest non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces, recently parted ways with some of its long-serving employees as part of a rebuilding exercise. According to Devin Finzer, the co-founder and CEO of Opensea, the objective of the exercise is to have “a smaller team with a direct connection to users.” Finzer said while the departure is the “most difficult part of this change,” taking this step helps Opensea build a foundation which enables it to innovate faster.
Finzer’s confirmation of the workers’ retrenchment is coming at a time when the NFT hype continues to fizzle out. As recently reported by Bitcoin.com News, the NFT sales, which have been trending downwards since February 2023, went down by 21% in October. The flagging NFT sales have seen one of Opensea’s biggest investors Coatue mark down its investment by 90%.
However, in a statement shared via X (formerly Twitter), the CEO appeared to shrug off fears that Opensea will continue to see reduced sales revenues.
“We’re making these changes with our community in mind. As we rebuild, we’ll continue supporting our existing products, and will be iteratively testing Opensea 2.0 in public — remaining nimble, attentive, and focused,” Finzer said.
The CEO added that his organization is now working on “re-orienting the team around” the upgraded product.
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Sega Exec Shuji Utsumi: ‘Blockchain Gaming Is Still an Unknown World for Us’
In a recent interview, Sega co-COO Shuji Utsumi talked about the company’s stance on blockchain games. For Utsumi, this new gaming field is still uncertain, and Sega is prepared to protect its franchises and learn about how these new games are being made via its partnership with Double Jump Tokyo, a blockchain games company.
Sega Still Considers Blockchain Gaming an ‘Unknown World’
Sega co-COO Shuji Utsumi has stated that, for the company, the blockchain gaming field is still unknown. In a recent interview, the executive explained the stance of Sega regarding blockchain games due to the upcoming release of Sangokushi Taisen, a game being licensed by the company and developed by Double Jump Tokyo, a blockchain gaming company and non-fungible token (NFT) solutions provider.
When asked about his thoughts on blockchain gaming, Utsumi stated:
Blockchain gaming is still an unknown world for us, so we want to protect what needs to be protected and take a new look at what needs to be captured in a new way.
This opinion is consistent with Utsumi’s earlier statements, in which he declared that play-to-earn games were “boring” and that the company would change its blockchain strategy, pulling the plug on in-house projects developed with this technology and protecting AAA franchises.
However, at that time, he acknowledged that lesser-known franchises could be licensed to third parties, including Sangokushi Taisen, considered an “IP that would be accepted by fans in Japan and other Asian countries and would harmonize effectively with blockchain technology.”
Transitional Period
Utsumi emphasized a need to engage and appeal to users with blockchain-based content designed to serve as an entry point for this gaming field, just like puzzle games for the mobile gaming industry.
He declared:
Within blockchain games, owning assets and, in some cases, earning money, could become player wants that haven’t existed before. In this regard, this is indeed a transitional phase for the industry.
Also, as one of the hurdles of blockchain gaming, Utsumi mentioned setting up wallets, stressing that games should allow users to set these up later in the game.
Despite Sega’s posture, blockchain gaming has continued to gather interest. Blockchain gaming projects have gotten investments for 0 million during Q3, according to Dappradar’s Third Quarter Blockchain Gaming report. Also, by Dapprardar’s numbers, companies have invested .3 billion in these initiatives in 2023.
What do you think about Sega’s stance on blockchain games? Tell us in the comments section below.
3rd Biggest Bitcoin Stash Now Belongs To Unknown Wallet, Amassed In Over 3 Months
An unknown Bitcoin wallet has emerged as the global third-largest BTC holder. The wallet used three months to accumulate BTC to climb to its present position in the ranking of holders. Following the recent revelation, some speculations and theories have been trending about the owner of the mysterious wallet.
BitInfoCharts Shares Data About Mysterious Wallet
The crypto statistics platform, BitInfoCharts, provided data regarding the mysterious wallet. The data indicated that the wallet first received some BTC coins on March 8. Within three months and two weeks, the wallet amassed 118,000 BTC. Going by the current prices in the crypto market, the coins are worth .08 billion.
Despite holding such a large number of BTC, the whale is still not the largest in the sector. Data from BitInfoCharts disclosed that the current largest Bitcoin wallets in the world belong to Binance and Bitfinex and these top two BTC wallets are currently operating as cold wallets.
Binance’s cold wallet emerged as the global largest BTC holder on March 10, 2021, with 143,528 BTC. It progressed gradually to hit an all-time high of 299,427 BTC by June 2021. But the wallet’s holding as of June 2023 was 248,597 BTC coins worth over billion, according to the current prices.
On the other hand, Bitfinex’s cold wallet is ranked the second-largest BTC holder, while the mysterious wallet occupies the third position currently. Interestingly, the fourth-largest Bitcoin wallet is another Binance cold wallet.
Does BlackRock Own The Mysterious Wallet?
Following the emergence of the mysterious wallet as the third-largest Bitcoin holder, speculations and theories started flowing within the crypto space and many have suggested the possible owner of the wallet.
One X (formerly Twitter) user, DivXMan, pointed out that the mysterious wallet witnessed its initial major transaction of 3,400 BTC tokens on May 16, 2023. One month later, the largest global asset manager Blackrock filed for a spot in Bitcoin ETF on June 15. Another user posted a huge black rock, suggesting that the wallet belongs to BlackRock.
This has triggered a rumor that BlackRock could be the owner of the unknown wallet. This is based on close timing between its Bitcoin ETF filing and the wallet’s key accumulation of BTC. However, the theories about BlackRock being the possible owner of the mysterious wallet lack concrete evidence.
Notably, the application for a spot BTC ETF from BlackRock created a large wave within the crypto market. And if the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approves the filing, it would become the first Spot Bitcoin ETF to trade in the US.
Besides BlackRock, other prominent companies and entities applied for a spot in Bitcoin ETF. These include Fidelity, Valkyrie, Invesco, and Wisdom Tree, among others.
Multichain Woes: Users Informed of an ‘Abnormal’ Transfer of Assets to Unknown Address
Users of the cross-chain protocol Multichain were on July 6 informed of an abnormal transfer of lockup assets on the Multichain MPC address to an unknown address. While the Multichain team has urged users to stop using the cross-chain protocol, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) told his followers that the incident does not affect Binance users or the exchange itself.
Users Told Revoke All ‘Contract Approvals Related to Multichain’
Just over a month after the disappearance of the Multichain CEO known only as Zhaojun sent shockwaves through the crypto community, users of the cross-chain protocol were on July 6 informed of an abnormal transfer of “lockup assets to an unknown address.” According to a statement shared via the cross-chain protocol’s verified Twitter handle, the Multichain “team is not sure what happened and is currently investigating.”
As reported by Bitcoin.com News on June 3, Zhaojun’s unavailability saw the router technology problems experienced by the cross-chain protocol cause disruptions to regular cross-chain services. The team revealed then that several chains including Kekchain, Publicmint, Dyno Chain, Red Light Chain, Dexit, Ekta, HPB, ONUS, Omax, Findora, and Planq had been affected. At the time, the team did not ask users to stop using the protocol even as rumors grew that Zhaojun had been arrested in China.
However, more than 30 days after Multichain’s problems came to the fore, the team behind the cross-chain protocol has told users to stop utilizing it.
“It is recommended that all users suspend the use of Multichain services and revoke all contract approvals related to Multichain,” the team said.
The Multichain service stopped currently, and all bridge transactions will be stuck on the source chains.
There is no confirmed resume time.
Please don’t use the Multichain bridging service now.
— Multichain (Previously Anyswap) (@MultichainOrg) July 7, 2023
Reacting to Multichain’s tweet, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) told his followers that the “hacking” incident does not affect users on Binance or the cryptocurrency exchange itself. He added:
We have swapped all assets out and closed deposits a while back. Regardless, we offer our assistance in helping with the situation.
‘Attacker Is Probably Not a Hacker’
While the Binance CEO has characterized the transfer lockup assets on the Multichain MPC address as hacking, a Twitter user going by the name Oxloki said their analysis suggests that the attacker may not be a hacker.
“The transferor has enough time. Considering the technical characteristics of MPC, the transferor may have completely obtained control of private key shards exceeding the threshold in some way. The ‘attack method’ is very simple, it is a simple transfer operation, there is no contract, and there is a test, the attacker is probably not a hacker,” the Twitter user explained.
Meanwhile, in a notice shared via Twitter, Kyber Network, a blockchain-based liquidity hub, urged users to “revoke all permissions and not use any Multichain service.” According to the team, Kyber Network is in the process of “disabling the bridge function on our UI.”
DIP Exchange, a decentralized exchange platform, said that while the latest incident on Multichain may slow it down this will not stop it from continuing to build.
What are your thoughts on this story? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Dogecoin Whale Moves $100 Million From Unknown Wallet In 3 Different Transactions
Dogecoin’s acceptance on the cryptocurrency market has increased in recent months, and its value has reached new heights.
At the time of writing, DOGE is trading at $.0843, down nearly 12% in the last seven days. Though losing some aggressiveness in the last week, the meme coin has been able to maintain a 5% increase in the last 30 days, data from Coingecko shows, Sunday.
Within the last 72 hours, well over million worth of Doge has been moved to different unknown addresses, according to monitoring by whale tracker DogeWhaleAlert.
Dogecoin Whale Transfers A Total Of 1.2 Billion Coins
Now, this figure has just ballooned, as Whale Alert has detected three massive transfers of Dogecoin (DOGE) worth a total of 1.2 billion coins.
These latest transfers – whose source and destination are unknown and which were executed without any glitches – further support the conviction that cryptocurrencies are the future of finance.
According to the foremost tracker of major cryptocurrency transactions, the transfers – each worth 400 million DOGE – have got the crypto world enthusiastic as they total about 0 million.
However, what has totally surprised the cryptocurrency community is the transaction charge. The transfers were completed for a modest .16 in DOGE – a cost that no traditional bank could ever exceed.
Transfers Completed Within Minutes
Transaction fees have been a major worry for users in the crypto market for a very long time. Since January 2021, the average Dogecoin transaction cost has been somewhat more than .44, relative to Ethereum.
Ethereum tops the transaction fees department. According to on-chain data, a typical transaction on Ethereum costs more than .6, but the same transaction on other protocols can be as high as .
Dogecoin and the broader cryptocurrency market began 2023 on a positive note, with the dog-themed coin’s price exhibiting a rising trend. However, Dogecoin has experienced a steep decline during the past week, undoing its earlier advances.
Two whale addresses have received a total of 11,238,539 DOGE (2,055) and 5,000,000 DOGE (0,285) since Friday, when more huge transaction transfers were detected on the network.
Bullish Near-Term Forecast For DOGE
The increase in DOGE transfers from top whale accounts may imply a bullish near-term prognosis for the popular meme coin.
Market observers hypothesize that larger interests are driving the massive crypto movement. Traders with long positions in the market may be aiming to increase their holdings.
In the meantime, the broader crypto market awaits an external positive signal from Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Twitter has proceeded with its ambitions to merge fiat and cryptocurrency payments into the microblogging application, and Dogecoin supporters are hopeful that the meme coin will be chosen as a cryptocurrency alternative.
-Featured image from The Album
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