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.
The Ronin Network has become the latest victim of an exploit — but the evidence suggests it may have been a white hat hack. Trading volumes for Bitcoin exchange-traded funds surged in the early hours of Aug. 5 as a global market sell-off intensified at the US open. Meanwhile, crypto hackers used the market dump as an opportunity to buy up heavily discounted Ether using stolen funds.
Ronin Network exploited for $9.8 million in ETH, white hat hacker suspected
Ronin Network has lost $9.8 million worth of Ether ETH $2,444 in a potential exploit, adding to the rising number of cryptocurrency hacks in 2024.
The network, one of the most popular gaming blockchains, lost 3,996 Ether tokens worth over $9.8 million.
However, the exploit may originate from a white hat hacker, or ethical hacker who is performing exploits to find the vulnerabilities in a crypto protocol, according to an Aug. 6 X post by PeckShield.
After discovering a vulnerability and proving the code is bugged, white hat hackers return the stolen funds. If the Ronin attacker turns out to be such an ethical hacker, the funds could soon be safely returned.
Adding a note of optimism to the event, the exploit was seemingly caused by a maximal extractable value (MEV) bot, a software tool used by validators to analyze arbitrage opportunities across decentralized finance (DeFI).
The hack was confirmed to originate from an MEV bot, according to a message sent to the address by the deployer of the Axie infinity contract, as noted by Cyvers in an Aug. 6 X post:
“Hey, thanks a lot for white hat saving user funds today. Can we chat over Blockscan chat?”
Bitcoin ETF volumes surge
According to Galaxy Digital, trading volumes for Bitcoin ETFs topped $1 billion at the start of US trading on Aug. 5, as plunging global markets triggered “extremely elevated” activity across the digital asset space.
Galaxy noted that Bitcoin BTC $54,904 ETF trading volumes crossed $1.3 billion in the first 20 minutes of trading, with the iShares Bitcoin Trust seeing upward of $875 million in volume.
Galaxy’s head of research, Alex Thorn, said he expected to see the ETFs accumulate inflows as investors bought the dip. According to Thorn, “Macro sentiment has also worsened following poor US unemployment data last Friday. Additionally, huge unwinds across all assets [have] caused volatility to spike sharply.”
10x Research founder Markus Thielen said he expects new crypto investments to slow as the market settles from the broader macroeconomic risks.
“The market structure, including fiat-to-crypto on-ramps, has been weak for months,” he said. “It’s unlikely that significant players will invest amid high volatility and unpredictable prices. Many still need to exit positions and deleverage their portfolios.”
Crypto hackers buy Ethereum dip using stolen funds
Cryptocurrency hackers saw the ongoing crash market as an opportunity to buy up heavily discounted Ether using stolen funds from previous heists.
On Aug. 5, 16,892 Ether was bought using stolen cryptocurrency funds linked to a hack on crypto bridge Nomad from August 2022. According to data from TradingView, Ether lost over 20% of its value—from approximately $2,760 to $2,172—in under 12 hours.
Crypto hackers tend to use crypto mixing services like Tornado Cash to deter onchain traceability and usually do so with no intention to return the stolen funds.
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