The latest developments in the DeFi space
Hi all 🙂
There has been tons of news in the industry, so as usual we have picked out some of the most newsworthy pieces for you. You can find this newsletter on both LinkedIn and our Medium.
There is a bunch of news in the crypto-sphere this week — what’s new? 😆 Singaporean Zipmex files for bankruptcy, Aave’s DAO approves their GHO stablecoin, Vitalik signals Eth’s 5 stages and 2 notable hacks that we can all learn something from 🤔 The Crypto Fear and Greed Index is at 31 or ‘Fear’.
In the Korea space it's all about the events that are happening and will happen over the next few weeks. KryptoSeoul, Buidl Asia, HackAtom, Eth Seoul and Korea Blockchain Week with 101 side events! Will you be there? Let us know!
This newsletter is a summary of a number of largely unrelated news pieces from the crypto-verse that might be crypto/DeFi/NFTs/VCs/Macro but touch upon DeFi. It is aimed at people who want to stay abreast of some of the news but are not following along too closely. It is put together by Bisonai — a DeFi company in Seoul that bridges together AI + Blockchain.
If you’d like to get in touch, ping us at business@bisonai.com. ✉️ Previous newsletters can be found here.
[tl;dr]
- Singaporean cryptocurrency exchange Zipmex files for bankruptcy protection
- Aave DAO Approves the Launch of GHO Stablecoin
- Vitalik’s 5-stage vision for Ethereum’s future
- Following a $3.5M exploit, Solana-based stablecoin NIRV sees an 85 percent decline.
- Hack of the Week: $190 million was stolen from Nomad Token Bridge through a security flaw.
Korea Corner
- An employee of the S. Korea Busan Bank is accused of embezzling US$1.1 million to buy Bitcoin.
- Along with HackAtom Seoul and Eth Seoul, KryptoSeoul launched Buidl Asia Week 2022 in Seoul
- Seoul prepares to host Korea Blockchain Week 2022
Singaporean cryptocurrency exchange Zipmex files for bankruptcy protection
The newest casualty of the global decline in digital currencies is the cryptocurrency exchange Zipmex, which has its concentration on Southeast Asia. Zipmex said that it had filed for bankruptcy protection in Singapore, according to CNBC.
The Singapore-based Zipmex company claimed it was attempting to handle its $53 million exposure to cryptocurrency lenders Babel Finance and Celsius when it resumed withdrawals last week, a day after it had suspended them on July 20.
The cryptocurrency exchange stated on Wednesday that five applications for moratoriums to stop legal actions against Zipmex for up to six months were lodged on July 22 by Zipmex’s attorneys.
According to Singaporean law, such a filing gives businesses a 30-day automatic moratorium, or until a Singapore Court rules on the case, whichever comes first.
According to its website, Zipmex operates in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Australia. Zipmex is the most recent in a long line of cryptocurrency players to experience problems as a result of a strong market sell-off that began in May with the collapse of two linked currencies, Luna and TerraUSD.
Aave DAO Approves the Launch of GHO Stablecoin
Voters in the Ave DAO have overwhelmingly supported the creation of a new stablecoin, as reported by Decrypt.
99.9% of voters approved the proposition put up by Aave Companies, pledging half a million AAVE in return for the creation of GHO, a stablecoin that will be backed by other cryptocurrencies as collateral.
The growth of protocol-owned-stablecoins definitely hasn’t gone unnoticed by researchers in the DeFi field, as noted by Twitter user Ignas, who gave examples of Near, Tron and Waves launching their own tokens.
Users who want to mint GHO first must deposit a cryptocurrency that Aave accepts. Interest will still be paid on the underlying collateral used to mint the stablecoin for those who borrow GHO against digital assets. Additionally, interest will be charged through the lending protocol on GHO loans, with payments made to the Aave DAO.
Despite the measure’s approval, it will take some time for GHO to become widely used because it will be deployed through an Aave improvement protocol (AIP). The Aave DAO will be in charge of overseeing the stablecoin’s distribution once its formation has been allowed.
The vote took place over the course of three days, and as of right now, the price of AAVE, the currency that is specifically tied to the loan platform, is US$90.
Vitalik’s 5-stage vision for Ethereum’s future
Mid-September will bring The Merge, and voila, trumpets will sound, angels will sing, and all of our troubles will be resolved.
Maybe not all of them, though. Just as Ethereum notched up its seventh birthday this week, Vitalik laid out the next five steps in ETH’s development into the real-world computer in his speech at the Ethereum Community Conference last week in Paris, according to CryptoSlate.
- The Merge: transitioning to proof-of-stake.
- The Surge: scaling to 100,000+ tps through “sharding”.
- The Verge: using Verkle trees to reduce node size and increase decentralisation.
- The Purge: cleaning out unneeded data to make it easier for people to become validators.
- The Splurge: anything else that’s leftover.
By the middle of 2023, according to Vitalik, the Surge might be ready, and the Verge would follow in late 2023 or early 2024. However, we shouldn’t place too much weight on these timelines at this moment given that the Merge is, um, about four years overdue.
Following a $3.5M exploit, Solana-based stablecoin NIRV sees an 85 percent decline.
Following a hack on the adaptive yield protocol Nirvana Finance on Wednesday, the Solana-based algorithmic stablecoin NIRV has now become the most recent stablecoin to fail, falling 85% from its peg to the US dollar, as reported in the Coin Telegraph.
The SolanaFM team was the first to announce that the funds were sucked off via a flash loan assault on Wednesday. The incident, which also saw Nirvana Finance’s native token ANA collapse by 85%, cost $3.49 million worth of Tether (USDT).
“Utilizing Solend Protocol’s Flash Loans, the hacker borrowed $10M USDC from the Solend Main Pool Vault which was used to exploit $3.49M USDT from the Nirvana Finance Treasury.”
The Nirvana team is now giving the hacker a $300,000 whitehat reward and the “cessation” of their identity probe. The hacker’s wallet connected to a centralized exchange has been detected, according to what they have so far disclosed.
“Please accept this good faith request and return our treasury for the good of the whole Nirvana community. You have not taken money from VCs or large funds — the treasury you have taken represents the collective hopes of everyday people,” it wrote.
As many of the hackers believed to be active in the DeFi space are nefarious actors, it is seemingly unlikely that the hackers will take the bait and refund the hacked money for the bounty offered. Although severe for the users of Nirvana, at only a few million dollars it is a runner-up for ‘hack of the week’, which this week goes to …
Hack of the Week: $190 million was stolen from Nomad Token Bridge through a security flaw.
An apparent security flaw in the Nomad token bridge appears to have given hackers access to methodically siphon off a sizeable amount of the bridge’s cash during a protracted string of transactions.
According to decentralized finance (DeFi) tracking platform DeFi Llama, almost all of the bridge’s $190.7 million in cryptocurrency has been taken, leaving only $651.54 in the wallet.
Nomad then claimed to Coin Desk that some of the money had actually been taken out by “white hat pals” who did it to protect them.
“Nomad has notified law enforcement and is working around the clock to address the situation and provide timely updates. Nomad’s goal is to identify the accounts involved and to trace and recover the funds. Nomad is grateful to its many white hat friends who reacted quickly to withdraw and safeguard the funds.”
How did it happen?
Bridges typically function by reissuing tokens in “wrapped” form on a different chain after locking them up in a smart contract on one network. The wrapped tokens lose their backing if the smart contract where they were initially deposited is compromised, as happened in Nomad’s instance, making them worthless.
Bridge attacks have increased in frequency in recent months as cryptocurrency users have shown a greater desire to transfer funds between various blockchains. While cross-chain bridges have enabled the spread of fledgling blockchains, bridge failures can be disastrous for smaller chains that depend on them for a significant portion of their overall liquidity.
Korea Corner
An employee of the S. Korea Busan Bank is accused of embezzling US$1.1 million to buy Bitcoin.
By depositing money customers got from abroad into a personal account belonging to his or her romantic partner, the employee, whose name was withheld, allegedly embezzled the money on many occasions between June 9 and July 25 of this year, according to Yahoo Finance.
According to local media, the employee bought Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with the diverted money.
According to its statement, BNK Busan Bank will sue the employee and conduct a self-audit. In South Korea, there have been more than ten instances of bank employees embezzling money. One employee at Woori Bank is accused of stealing about 70 billion won (US$53.6 million) from 2012 before being caught earlier this year.
In order to stop such instances, South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service is now developing stronger requirements for the internal control system within banks.
Along with HackAtom Seoul and Eth Seoul, KryptoSeoul launched Buidl Asia Week 2022 in Seoul
HackAtom Seoul, the Buidl Asia 2022 Conference, Eth Seoul, and other developer- and community-focused conferences and events will all take place during Buidl Asia Week in Seoul, which will last for two weeks starting on July 29 and ending on August 13. KryptoSeoul, the leading blockchain community building team in South Korea, is proud to launch the event. The events’ main focus will be on elevating and bringing together international innovators and developers in the sector, creating chances for Asia’s developing blockchain landscape, according to Coin Telegraph.
As the bear market fuels a season of building and innovation, we hope to provide developers, businesses and community members with a conducive space to gather and connect with the top minds in the current scene,” said Erica Kang, founder and CEO of KryptoSeoul
HackAtom appeared to have started the series of events very successfully between 29–31 July. There were plenty of winners for the various tracks of the event. Some of the winners were (but not limited to) Supernova, Mikko Ohtamaa, Mike Purvis, Ewha Chain and many more. A recording of their opening event can be found here.
The events continue in a few days time from 4 August when Buidl Asia begins. Over 35 speakers will share their perspectives on the most current changes in the sector as part of the Buidl Asia Week 2022, which will launch a variety of activities in Seoul this summer to strengthen the nation’s blockchain community. It wants to introduce this sense of community to other parts of Asia in 2022 as the first crypto conference driven by an Asian community.
Seoul prepares to host Korea Blockchain Week 2022
After the KryptoSeoul events, Korea Blockchain Week officially begins on Monday 7 August with several stages over the 2-day event. There will be dozens of speakers who are flying in from all corners of the earth for the official and side events. The side events carry on right through to 14 August, according to the official side events spreadsheet as shared by the Korea Blockchain Week Twitter account.
As ever, thanks for your readership! If you’d like to get in touch, email us at business@bisonai.com. 📧 Until next time, have a great week ahead!
