Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.
Rumors surfaced of a potential token merger of three AI protocols. NFT game Munchables was hacked for $63 million in ETH. Meanwhile, the U.S. charged KuCoin with running an unlicensed money-transmitting business.
SingularityNet, Fetch.AI, Ocean Protocol reportedly discuss token merger
Three prominent artificial intelligence (AI) protocols, SingularityNet, Fetch.ai and Ocean Protocol are in discussions to merge their tokens into an AltSignals (ASI) token that would have a fully diluted valuation of $7.5 billion.
The deal could be announced as soon as Wednesday, depending on community approval, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg M&A reported.
While the three platforms would continue to operate as separate entities, the new deal would foster their collaboration under a newly formed Superintelligence Collective, run by Ben Goertzel, the founder and CEO of SingularityNet. Humayun Sheikh, the CEO of Fetch.ai, would be the chairman of the new entity, according to the sources.
Blast-based NFT game ‘Munchables’ exploited for $63M
Munachables, a nonfungible token (NFT) game on Ethereum layer 2 blockchain Blast, was exploited for $63 million worth of Ether ETH $3,640, with the blame pinned on one of its developers.
Munchables said in a March 26 X post that it had been compromised and was tracking the exploiter’s movements and “attempting to stop the transactions.”
Blockchain analyst ZachXBT responded to the post with the wallet address of the alleged attacker, which had a balance of 17,413 in Ether ETH $3,640 worth $62.45 million, per Blastscan.
ZachXBT claimed the exploit stemmed from the Munchables team hiring a North Korean developer known by the alias “Werewolves0943.”
Solidity developer 0xQuit claimed the Munchables attack had been long planned as one of the developers upgraded the Lock contract — meant to lock tokens in for a specified time — with a new one before launch.
“There were appropriate checks to ensure you couldn’t withdraw more than you deposited,” 0xQuit explained. “But before upgrading, the attacker was able to assign himself a deposited balance of 1,000,000 Ether.”
KuCoin charged with violating AML laws
Crypto exchange KuCoin and two of its founders were charged by the U.S. Justice Department for operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business and violating the Bank Secrecy Act.
Per an unsealed DOJ indictment, KuCoin founders Chun Gan and Ke Tang willfully failed to maintain Anti-Money Laundering requirements and alleged the exchange was used for “money laundering and terrorist financing.”
“KuCoin and its founders deliberately sought to conceal the fact that substantial numbers of U.S. users were trading on KuCoin’s platform,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. “Indeed, KuCoin allegedly took advantage of its sizeable U.S. customer base to become one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency derivatives and spot exchanges, with billions of dollars of daily trades and trillions of dollars of annual trade volume.”
Despite the indictment, KuCoin reminded users that all customer assets are safe and unaffected by the investigation.
“KuCoin is operating well, and the assets of our users are absolutely safe,” the exchange wrote on social media platform X. “We are aware of the related reports and are currently investigating the details through our lawyers.
Risk Disclaimer
Although Sponsored Trading can be profitable, it is associated with a significant risk of losing your investment. The risks will increase when trading on margin companies. Traders must exercise due diligence and be careful when making their trading decisions. It is the sole responsibility of the Trader to learn and acquire the knowledge and experience required to use the Trading Platform and anything that will be required to trade properly.
