MicroStrategy’s X account hacked, shilling Ethereum token phishing scam

Business intelligence firm MicroStrategy’s X account has been hacked, posting malicious links to a fake airdrop of a so-called “official” Ethereum-based MSTR token.

A user clicking on the link is directed to a copycat MicroStrategy webpage that directs them to connect a wallet and claim the fake MSTR airdrop. Once users accept a series of permissions in their Web3 wallet, it is understood that the attackers can automatically drain the tokens out of the user’s wallet.

According to independent blockchain sleuth ZachXBT and anti-scam platform Scam Sniffer, losses incurred from the scam have already tallied over $440,000.

Scam Sniffer said just one user had lost over $420,000 to the phishing scam at approximately 12:43 am UTC, only several minutes after the first malicious link was posted to MicroStrategy’s account on X.

The unknown user lost a total of $424,786 worth of altcoins, with one transfer going to the MicroStrategy attacker and two being automatically re-routed to a second wallet associated with the notorious hacking group PinkDrainer.

The unknown victim signed for a transaction that saw a total of $134,000 worth of Wrapped Balance AI (wBAI), $122,000 worth of Chintai (CHEX) and $45,000 worth of Wrapped Pocket Network (wPOKT) sent to the attacker’s wallet address.

As of the time of publication, the MicroStrategy attacker’s wallet address holds a total of $329,000 worth of Ethereum-based tokens, per Ethereum DeBank.

#news #hacks #MicroStrategy #Bitcoin

Reddit converts excess cash into Bitcoin and Ethereum

Social media giant Reddit has been using its excess cash to add small amounts of Bitcoin and Ether
“We invested some of our excess cash reserves in Bitcoin and Ether,” Reddit stated in a Feb. 22 initial public offering filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.


Reddit said Bitcoin and Ether were the only cryptocurrencies held in the firm’s treasury as of Dec. 31, 2023, but also said the amounts are “immaterial.”

Reddit added that it has been “experiment[ing] with blockchain technology” by buying Ether and Polygon’s MATIC as a form of payment for the sales of certain virtual goods.

The firm said the Ether and MATIC it received were also “not material” across 2022 and 2023 but that it may continue to use the two cryptocurrencies as a payment method in the future.

Reddit said its product and engineering team also holds cryptocurrencies for “specific uses” but didn’t specify which ones or the amount.

The S-1 registration — used by companies planning on going public — revealed that Reddit recorded $90.8 million in net losses in 2023, though its revenue increased 20.6% to $804 million year-on-year.

Reddit was valued at $10 billion after its funding round in 2021, but it may now only attain half that figure, according to a Jan. 28 Bloomberg report.

In October, Reddit shuttered its blockchain-based rewards service, “Community Points,” which rewarded users with points for positive engagement in certain subreddits. The firm cited scalability concerns as the main reason for the shutdown.

#news #crypto #reddit #sec #eth #btc #polygon

Citrea raises $2.7M in seed funding to launch Bitcoin ZK-rollup

Citrea, a project aiming to bring zero-knowledge (ZK) rollups to Bitcoin, has closed a $2.7 million seed round led by Galaxy Ventures, the venture arm of Galaxy Digital.

The project said in a Feb. 2 blog post that the funding would enable Chainway Labs, the blockchain infrastructure firm building Citrea, to bring it to market.

"Citrea is the first rollup that enhances the capabilities of Bitcoin blockspace with zero-knowledge technology, making it possible to build everything on Bitcoin," the firm said in a statement.

The round closed in 2023 and saw participation from Delphi Ventures, Taproot Wizards co-founder Eric Wall, Blockscout founder Igor Barinov and others.

ZK-rollups are concepts that have been more commonly linked to Ethereum through layer-2 blockchains such as Polygon and zkSync.

ZK-rollups aim to be efficient and cheaper by bundling transactions on layer 2 and securing them using a cryptographic protocol called ZK-proofs to prove they happened to the base blockchain without disclosing details about how.

Bitcoin also has layer 2s, such as the payments-focused Lightning Network and scaling projects to rival Citrea, such as ZKSats and Rollux.

In its post, Citrea claimed its ZK-rollup addresses Bitcoin’s “challenges in handling more transactions” and supports “diverse applications without changing its consensus rules.”

“In doing so, Citrea leverages Bitcoin not only as a digital currency but also as a base layer for securing and settling transactions,” it added.

#news #layer2 #btc #zkrollup

Australia’s Bitcoin sentiment jumps after US spot Bitcoin ETF approvals

Australian retail interest in Bitcoin has increased following last month’s approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States, according to a recent survey.

Sentiment has demonstrably shifted,” Independent Reserve CEO Adrian Przelozny said of the findings, adding that “we’ve entered a phase of renewed optimism and growth.”

The survey found that 19% of respondents would invest in an Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)-listed spot Bitcoin ETF if one were available now. Respondents aged 25 to 34 and 35 to 44 were most enthusiastic, at 29% and 30%, respectively.

Bitcoin sentiment in Australia was boosted by 25% following the approval, while adoption rates also marginally increased in 2024 — though further adoption was held back by uncertain economic conditions, according to a survey of 2,100 adults in the fifth annual Independent Reserve Cryptocurrency Index, published on Feb. 21.

The rise in positive sentiment was skewed heavily by those aged 55 and above, where favorability towards Bitcoin increased by 100%.

#news #Australia #ETF #crypto

BlackRock labels BTC as ‘progress’ in latest spot Bitcoin ETF ad

lackRock has ramped up its media advertising campaign for its recently launched spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, labeling the asset not as a currency but as “progress.”

In its latest advertisement, the world’s largest asset manager maintained its relatively “boring” approach to advertising its IBIT fund at least compared to its competitors.

“Bitcoin ETFs have landed,” states the yellow advertisement, showing simply a silhouette of a runway and plane. However, BlackRock has added the caption: “Get your share of progress.”

The seemingly mundane marketing approach wasn’t overlooked by industry observers such as Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, describing it as being in the “sweet spot between boring legacy fund and “‘hey fellow kids’ type stuff.”

The firm also mentions how the ETF standardizes BTC so it is just like stock and bonds in a portfolio, he added.

BlackRock’s first ETF advertisement, released on Jan. 11, also took a mature approach, targeting the affluent “boomer” market. Since the product launched, BlackRock has seen an inflow of $5.3 billion for its IBIT fund, according to Farside.

Moreover, the Bitcoin ETF marketing war has been heating up since Bitwise dropped the first ad in mid-December using actor Jonathan Goldsmith, who appeared as “The Most Interesting Man in the World.”

The promotional blitz accelerated after Google began allowing crypto ads earlier this month.

#news #btc #etf #blackrock

Coinbase drops native Bitcoin payments from merchants’ platform

Coinbase has removed support for native Bitcoin and other UTXO coins from its payment platform for merchants, Coinbase Commerce.

Coinbase has removed support for native Bitcoin and other UTXO coins from its payment platform for merchants, according to the company's head of product, Lauren Dowling.

In a Feb. 18 thread on X (formerly Twitter), Dowling said the company “made the difficult decision to remove native Bitcoin & other UTXO support” from Coinbase Commerce, citing difficulties in delivering recent updates on its EVM payment protocol for Bitcoin.

Shoppers paying with Coinbase Commerce will still be able to use Bitcoin if they have an account with the exchange, noted its CEO Brian Armstrong on X, adding that the company is in the process of integrating the Lightning Network into Coinbase.

“Hopefully there are opportunities to make commerce payments with Lightning in the future,” commented Armstrong. The Lightning Network is a payment protocol designed to facilitate transactions within the Bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin transactions have been running on the protocol since 2017.

#news #btc #coinbase