Hello from another week in web3 journey 🙋🏻‍♂️

I guess you’ve heard Wormhole, Solana’s bridge exploited 120k wETH which seems to be caused by the wrong comparison in its contract. In 6 hours vulnerability patched and less than 24 hours, additional funds were provided to restore backing of wETH 1:1 with ETH.

Another remarkable thing is Brantly Millegan’s who is a core contributor to ENS (Ethereum Name Service) regressive views on sexuality, gender in a (now deleted) tweet. The ENS DAO now discussing removing Brantly as a community steward indefinitely.

You can reach out via Twitter or LinkedIn. You can also follow Week in Web3 on Twitter.

Highlights

• ConsenSys acquires MyCrypto to ‘improve the security’ of its products — CoinTelegraph
• US Treasury targets NFTs for potential high-value art money laundering — CoinTelegraph
• UK Government updates crypto tax rules on DeFi, staking — Decrypt
• CryptoPunks Controversy: Creators Apologize for ‘V1’ Ethereum NFT Sales — Decrypt
• New malware targets MetaMask and 40 other crypto wallets — CoinTelegraph
• The Over $3.6B in Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex hack is on the move — Decrypt
• Japanese government considers relaxing strict coin listing rules — CoinTelegraph
• Russian central bank registers nation’s first digital asset manager — CoinTelegraph

Chains & Protocols

Solana Labs launches new digital payment platform Solana Pay — www.zdnet.com
Ethereum rival Solana introduces a new, decentralized, peer-to-peer payment platform Solana Pay, which provides merchants with a simple framework to make transactions directly to consumers for fractions of a cent and with no middleman.

Rekt — Wormhole — REKT — rekt.news

Wormhole had a loophole… A hacker distorted the fabric of Solana’s space-time, netting $326M in the process. How did Wormhole return so much ETH so fast?

Ethereum hash rate scores new ATH as PoS migration underway — cointelegraph.com
The rise of ETH price has made mining on the Ethereum network more lucrative over time. This appears to have resulted in additional miners, resulting in an expansion of the network’s hash rate.

Cardano network at record capacity due to SundaeSwap launch, but not all users hail it as a success — cointelegraph.com
Network activity has almost tripled since January on the world’s sixth-largest blockchain by market cap.

Anchor protocol’s reserves head toward depletion due to lack of borrowing demand — cointelegraph.com
If the trend continues, Terraform Labs would either need to lower the interest rate or inject more of its own money into the UST reserve.

DAOs

Assange DAO Raises $7.8M in Ethereum to Buy NFT — And Free the WikiLeaks Founder

decrypt.co
A collective of Cypherpunks is fighting for the freedom of the WikiLeaks founder.

Removing brantly.eth as a Community Steward — ENS DAO Governance Forum — discuss.ens.domains

Indefinite removal of brantly.eth as ENS DAO Community Steward. Update: Vote concluded, and a majority has been reached to remove Brantly as a community steward.

NFTs

‘Significant’ Wash Trading, Money Laundering in NFT Market: Chainalysis

decrypt.co
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has detected significant wash trading and money laundering throughout the NFT market.

Comments

Decentralized autonomous organizations: Tax considerations — cointelegraph.com
Much has been said about the legal implications of DAOs, but little attention has been paid to the tax and reporting considerations for DAOs and their token holders.

3 things every NFT investor should know to avoid a tax nightmare — cointelegraph.com
Classifying NFTs for tax purposes is a tough question: Should they be taxed as collectibles or not? Nonetheless, they will be taxed anyway, be aware.

SEC’s proposed rule on exchanges could threaten DeFi, says Crypto Mom — cointelegraph.com
SEC commissioner Hester Peirce reportedly opposed opening a proposal to amend the definition of “exchange” to public comment and said the text could impose additional regulations on decentralized finance projects.

Tools

Solana Pay: A decentralized, permissionless, and open-source payments protocol — solanapay.com
Solana Pay makes it easy for merchants worldwide to directly accept and settle digital dollars like USDC, or any other SPL Token, for a fraction of a penny and without intermediaries.

Hello from another full of news week 🙋🏻‍♂️

Probably the most remarkable event of this week was DeFi project Wonderland’s CFO Sifu’s identity reveal by Twitter pseudonymous on-chain sleuth ZachXBT.

The cryptocurrency world has been shaken by this scandal that threatens confidence among investors as cryptocurrency prices plummet.

You can reach me out via Twitter or LinkedIn. You can also follow Week in Web3 on Twitter.

Highlights

• White House reportedly preparing executive order on crypto — CoinTelegraph
• JPMorgan Chase closes Uniswap founder’s bank accounts — The Block
• Putin pumps the brakes on Russian Central Bank’s push to ban crypto, sees future in mining — The Block
• Fireblocks raises $550 million in Series E funding, now valued at $8 billion — The Block
• Phantom wallet to be integrated on OpenSea as marketplace adds Solana network support — u.today
• Valkyrie applies to list Bitcoin Miners ETF on Nasdaq — CoinDesk
• Bitcoin could be hacked with extremely powerful quantum computers, British researchers say — u.today
• Polymarket shuts out U.S. traders to comply with CFTC settlement — The Defiant
• Citi seeks risk management specialist for digital asset unit — Tovef

Chains & Protocols

Latest Solana Network Outage Caused by Arbitrage Bot Spam

beincrypto.com
Solana, the previously touted “Ethereum killer” has suffered more outages than most of its rivals, and questions regarding its reliability are being raised.

Polygon Activates EIP-1559 Upgrade

cryptobriefing.com

The Polygon team noted that EIP-1559 would result in fewer spam transactions and lead to less network congestion.

DeFi

Uniswap Crosses Milestone With Greater ETH/Stablecoin Volume than Coinbase or Binance — thedefiant.io
Uniswap, the leading decentralized exchange by trade volume, now processes more ETH/stablecoin volume than any centralized crypto trading venue.

Wonderland CFO Is Ex-Convict Tied to Defunct Exchange — www.thestreet.com
Michael Patryn, treasury manager for decentralized finance protocol Wonderland, is a former convict who co-founded the defunct Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX.

Qubit Finance — Rekt — rekt.news

Qubit Finance, a protocol by the team behind repeat offender PancakeBunny, has fallen victim to an $80M exploit.

DAOs

OlympusDAO Created a Breakthrough DeFi Model — Now It’s Down 93% and Called a ‘Ponzi’

thedefiant.io
Olympus DAO is under fire after price drop and liquidations.

Olympus Has Fallen: A Postmortem on the (3,3) Experiment — medium.com
Is OlympusDAO a Ponzi? Yes. Just like any other Ponzi, Olympus promises a high return, but complex token dynamics hide the effects of wealth redistribution

Organization Legos: The State of DAO Tooling — medium.com
DAO Operations is a crypto vertical that remains underserved. This article explores the landscape of tooling aimed for internet-native organizations.

NFTs

Exclusive DappRadar Report: Why are NFTs Sidestepping the Crypto Crash? — thedefiant.io

The correlation between crypto and traditional markets made the effect widely felt in blockchain assets. However, the metrics related to the performance of specific blockchain verticals like NFTs might suggest otherwise.

Cancel Your Old OpenSea Listings Or Risk Your Precious NFTs Being Spirited Away — thedefiant.io
Over $1M worth of NFTs were bought at huge discounts due to a listing bug.

LooksRare Surges to $7B Valuation as Torrid Volumes Fuel Staking Rewards — thedefiant.io
LooksRare, the upstart NFT marketplace that airdropped its $LOOKS token to NFT traders on Jan. 9, is having a stellar run.

Comments

Haseeb Qureshi: Blockchains are cities — medium.com
People usually describe L1 blockchains as networks, e.g. the Ethereum network, the Solana network. This implies that blockchains are endlessly extensible like the Internet, or Telegram, or Facebook…

Scott Galloway: the false promise of Web3 — marker.medium.com
The crypto-based Web3 internet claims to be decentralized, but further centralizes power and resources in the hands of a few

Binance CEO Ignored Internal Warnings Over Regulatory Failings: Report

decrypt.co
According to a Reuters investigation, concerns from Binance employees regarding the company’s weak KYC checks fell on deaf ears.

Software Development

Almost All Solidity Contracts Have This Security Issue — medium.com

Almost all Solidity contracts have this security issue, and some have it more gravely than others. This problem is inherent to the Solidity compiler.

How the standardized usage of Open Zeppelin smart contracts cannibalized NFTs with insane gas prices — medium.com
You’ll find, things are not what you’d expect. Instead of having an efficient method of management for your favorite NFTs, developers are assembling pieces often without much consideration of the…

Hello from the second issue of this newsletter 🙋🏻‍♂️

It was a busy week that brought us news about ecosystem funds, crypto hacks, comments from regulatory institutions, acquisitions, and new projects.

With the outreach provided by you, we’ve hit 150+ followers on Twitter and 28 subscribers here. Please feel free to give feedback and help me get this newsletter valuable to all of us.

You can reach out via Twitter or LinkedIn. You can also follow Week in Web3 on Twitter to get news more frequently.

Highlights

• ConsenSys AG Sues Former Investment Head, Alleging Resume Fraud — CoinDesk
• OpenSea surpasses $3.5B in monthly Ether trading volume setting new ATH — CoinTelegraph
• MultiChain announced a vulnerability that affects 6 tokens — MultiChain
• MultiChain hack ‘getting worse’, company failing to provide support — BanklessTimes
• Spain moves to regulate crypto asset advertising, including promotions by influencers — Reuters
• Fed kicks off debate on issuing its own digital currency with new white paper — Reuters
• Robinhood to start rolling out crypto wallets — Reuters
• Blockchain meets activity tracking: Project rewards healthy habits with tokens — CoinTelegraph
• SEC rejects MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin accounting practices: report — CoinTelegraph
• El Salvador explores low-interest loans backed by Bitcoin — CoinTelegraph
• Iran to pilot national cryptocurrency soon — ILNA
• Monetary Authority of Singapore Guidelines Shutter Crypto ATMs — Be in Crypto

Critical privacy vulnerability — getting exposed by MetaMask — medium.com

We’ve stumbled upon a pretty dark use case that can compromise the privacy of more than 21 million people — all MetaMask users.

Chains & Protocols

Multichain hacker returns 322 ETH, keeps hefty finders fee

cointelegraph.com
One of the Multichain hackers returned 322 ETH, but over 527 ETH is still outstanding.

‘Centralization issues’ are the biggest culprits of DeFi attacks: CertiK

cointelegraph.com
Perhaps ironically, centralization issues are the biggest weak points for DeFi projects when it comes to security.

👆🏼 Report: The State of DeFi Security 2021 — CertiK 👆🏼

You can download the report mentioned above from here.

Exchanges

Gemini Acquires Trading Technology Platform Omniex, Launches Gemini Prime

www.gemini.com
Integrating Omniex’s market-leading trading technology with our clearing and custody capabilities will power a full crypto prime brokerage offering.

BitMEX CEO, CFO to Buy One of Germany’s Oldest Banks

www.coindesk.com
Bankhaus von der Heydt was formed in 1754 and became one of the first regulated institutions in Germany to offer digital asset services.

Economy

USDC Supply on Ethereum Tops USDT

beincrypto.com
USD Coin (USDC) has surpassed Tether (USDT) in total supply on the Ethereum blockchain. USDC has a total supply of $40.3 billion on Ethereum, while USDT has a total supply of $39.8 billion.

FTX Launches $2 Billion Web3 Venture Fund Led by Lightspeed’s Amy Wu — decrypt.co
Wu plans wide-ranging crypto and blockchain investments for FTX Ventures, and will also oversee FTX’s gaming business.

Study: Crypto job ads increased by almost 400% in 1 year

www.banklesstimes.com

Job ads for crypto-related positions increased almost fivefold from 2020 to 2021, a recent study by LinkedIn shows.

Privacy-Focused Blockchain Secret Network Announces $400M in Funding

www.coindesk.com
The project includes a $225 million ecosystem fund and $175 million accelerator pool.

NFTs

OpenSea buys DeFi wallet startup Dharma Labs, appoints new CTO — techcrunch.com

The announcement follows a report earlier this month in Axios that detailed OpenSea was in talks to buy the startup for between $110 million and $130 million.

OpenDAO (SOS), LooksRare (LOOKS) and WTF token: 3 airdrops, with 1 scam

cointelegraph.com
NFT investors are demanding that marketplaces recognize and give value to their users, prompting competitors like LOOKS, SOS and WTF to launch ambitious vampire attacks on OpenSea.

Solana gains momentum as NFT sales volume hits $1B

ambcrypto.com
Solana has been a cryptocurrency blockbuster this year, and even 2021. However, its token (SOL) went into free fall, following technical difficulties in its network. But did that hinder its growth?

Mastercard strikes NFT payments deal with Coinbase amid a wave of recent crypto partnerships — www.cnbc.com
Coinbase customers will be able to use Mastercard credit and debit cards to make purchases the crypto company’s upcoming NFT marketplace.

Comments

Crypto.com breach may be worth up to $33M, suggests onchain analyst

cointelegraph.com
ErgoBTC tweeted that another 444 BTC ($18.5M) was stolen from Crypto.com’s payout wallet plus another 52.55 BTC ($2.18M).

NFTs and compliance: Why we need to be having this conversation

cointelegraph.com
How NFT marketplaces can handle Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations and compliances to protect projects and end-users.

Does a Fed digital dollar leave any room for crypto stablecoins? — cointelegraph.com
Could stablecoins be undone by a Federal Reserve that takes consumer deposits? Would retail banks be hobbled?

Cryptocurrency thefts, ransomware payments to drop 30% by 2024, says Gartner

www.msn.com

In the next three years alone, successful cryptocurrency thefts and ransomware payments will drop by 30% in its recently published Predicts 2022: Prepare for Blockchain-Based Digital Disruption report..

Projects

Opera announces beta of a new Web3-Browser With Built-In Crypto Wallet — press.opera.com
Opera, [NASDAQ:OPRA] the company behind the popular, eponymous multi-platform web browser, today unveils its “Crypto Browser Project,” offering users direct, frictionless access to Web3 services with beta versions immediately available for Windows, Mac and Android.

🔺 An early example of Avalanche Subnets with a custom VM instead of EVM: Spaces

Patrick O'Grady 🔺 on Twitter: "Anon: Cool cool subnet everything. For sure. But like what?Patrick: Well, anon. Today is big 4 you. @avalabsofficial is THRILLED🎉 to release:* SpacesVM => new Avalanche-native VM* Spaces => SpacesVM Subnet Demo* subnet-cli => new subnet in 3 cmdshttps://t.co/P7VXOUeqwL pic.twitter.com/6uIlqpUGMr / Twitter"

Anon: Cool cool subnet everything. For sure. But like what?Patrick: Well, anon. Today is big 4 you. @avalabsofficial is THRILLED🎉 to release:* SpacesVM => new Avalanche-native VM* Spaces => SpacesVM Subnet Demo* subnet-cli => new subnet in 3 cmdshttps://t.co/P7VXOUeqwL pic.twitter.com/6uIlqpUGMr