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Key Highlights
- ZachXBT Recovers Majority of Stolen NFT Proceeds
- MicroStrategy’s X Account Falls Victim to Phishing Scam
- GBTC Records Lowest Ever Outflow Amid Market Optimism
- Gemini to return at least $1.1B to Earn customers in settlement with NYDFS
- Blast Launches Ethereum L2 Mainnet, Unlocks $2.3B in Staked Crypto
ZachXBT Recovers Majority of Stolen NFT Proceeds
February 25, 2024: ZachXBT, an on-chain researcher who operates under a pseudonym, announced the recovery of a significant portion of the funds from the sale of a stolen DeGods non-fungible token (NFT). The NFT was stolen in May 2023, and the original holder fell victim to a phishing scam. After a painstaking nine-month investigation, ZachXBT managed to trace and retrieve the majority of the proceeds from the stolen DeGods NFT. The NFT had been sold for 99 Ether (ETH), which was worth approximately ~ $177K at the time. The recovered funds have now been returned to the rightful owner.
MicroStrategy’s X Account Falls Victim to Phishing Scam
February 26, 2024: MicroStrategy’s X account was compromised in a sophisticated phishing scam. The hackers posted malicious links to a fake airdrop of a so-called “official” Ethereum-based “MSTR” token. Users who clicked on the link were redirected to a fraudulent MicroStrategy webpage, which prompted them to connect a wallet and claim the fake $MSTR airdrop. Once users accepted a series of permissions in their Web3 wallet, the attackers were able to automatically drain the tokens out of the user’s wallet. The scam resulted in losses of over ~ $440K.
GBTC Records Lowest Ever Outflow Amid Market Optimism
February 27, 2024: Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust, known as GBTC, is a major Bitcoin fund worldwide. It recently saw its net outflows slow down for three days in a row, hitting a record low. This could mean investors are holding onto their Bitcoin more, which is often a good sign for the market. GBTC, which converted to a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), has seen slowing outflows for three consecutive days. Despite this, it has experienced 31 straight days of outflows since its conversion, with a total of $7.47 billion leaving the ETF.
Gemini to return at least $1.1B to Earn customers in settlement with NYDFS
February 28, 2024: Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini and the New York State Department of Financial Services have reached a settlement that will see Gemini return at least $1.1 billion to customers of the Gemini Earn program through the Genesis bankruptcy proceeding. Gemini will also pay a $37 million penalty for multiple compliance failures “that threatened the safety and soundness of the company”. If approved by the bankruptcy court, Gemini said it expects users to receive 100% of their cryptocurrency assets back plus appreciation on top of that.
Blast Launches Ethereum L2 Mainnet, Unlocks $2.3B in Staked Crypto
March 1, 2024: Blast, an Ethereum layer-2 network, launched its mainnet, unlocking nearly $2.3 billion in staked crypto that had previously been locked up on the network. Following the launch of the mainnet, around $400 million in Ether (ETH) was withdrawn from the network. Despite some controversy surrounding the launch, the Blast network has seen significant growth, with its total value locked (TVL) reaching a high of $2.27 billion on the day of the mainnet launch. Blast is a new project that was announced by Pacman, the founder of Blur. As a Layer 2 network based on the Optimistic Rollup mechanism, it aims to solve two primary problems: reducing the high gas fees for NFT transactions on the Ethereum mainnet and achieving passive appreciation of funds in the Blur bid pool.
