Prepare for ‘Pretty Long Crypto Winter’, North Korea Stole $1.2B in Crypto in 5 Years, Malicious Hackers Returned $32.7M in 2022

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.__________

Market news

Zhou Wei, the former chief financial officer of the Binance exchange and the CEO of the Coins.ph platform, said that the crypto market would remain depressed for a long time with more restrictive regulations coming following the collapse of FTX. “Basically, we have to all brace ourselves for a pretty long winter in the crypto world,” Zhou said to the South China Morning Post. “It’s going to push everyone into a deeper bear market.”

Security news

North Korean hackers have stolen an estimated ₩1.5 trillion won ($1.2 billion) in crypto and other virtual assets in the past five years, more than half of it this year alone, the Independent reported, citing South Korea’s spy agency. Experts and officials say North Korea has turned to crypto hacking and other illicit cyber activities as it badly needs foreign currency.Bug bounty and security services platform Immunefi released its comprehensive Top Crypto Bounty and Ransom Payments Report, stating that over $65.9 million crypto bounty payments have been made through Immunefi in total, with the top 5 crypto bug bounty payments bringing a total of $30.2 million in rewards to whitehats in just over a year. The highest bounty paid in 2022 is $10 million for a vulnerability discovered in the Wormhole protocol. Critical vulnerabilities take the lead with more than $61 million, accounting for 92.7% of all bounties paid out, while smart contracts saw more than $59 million in bounty payments, accounting for 89.6% of the total amount paid to whitehats. Meanwhile, malicious hackers have returned $32.7 million illicitly gained from DeFi protocols across 5 specific situations in 2022, and kept nearly $6.5 million in total ransom payments.

Exchange news

Coinbase announced that it has successfully registered with the Central Bank of Ireland as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP), meaning that Coinbase can continue to provide products and services to individuals and institutions in Europe and internationally, from Ireland, said the blog post. It also introduced Cormac Dinan as its new Country Director for Ireland.

Regulation news

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro signed a bill into law that establishes a regulatory framework for the trading and use of “virtual currencies” in the country, per the federal government’s official journal. The new law will go into effect in 180 days.Investment platform MyConstant has been ordered by the California Department of Financial Protection & Innovation (DFPI) in the US to “desist and refrain from violating the California Securities Law and California Consumer Financial Protection Law” through its crypto-related products, said the press release. The DFPI’s action found that MyConstant’s peer-to-peer lending services and interest-bearing accounts violated California law and ordered it to stop offering them, it added.Retiring US Senator Pat Toomey introduced crypto legislation – the Stablecoin TRUST Act – that “would establish the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins and guide Congress towards a path for sensible regulation of cryptocurrencies.”

Mining news

The British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority (BC Hydro), a Canadian electric utility in the province of British Columbia, is set to halt all new electricity-connection requests from cryptocurrency miners for 18 months. “The temporary suspension will preserve B.C.’s electricity supply, while giving government and BC Hydro sufficient time to engage with industry and First Nations, and develop a permanent framework for any future cryptocurrency mining operations,” said the press release.