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Blockstack’s STX Token Starts Trading on KuCoin Today

Blockstack is increasing its presence in Asia with the addition of its token Stacks (STX) to popular Asian-based cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin.

Blockstack PBC is a creator of software for a user-owned internet and secure app ecosystem. As announced, Blockstack’s Stacks token (STX) will be available for trading at 6am ET today May 27, by non-U.S. persons on KuCoin, a popular Asia-based cryptocurrency exchange.

KuCoin currently serves 1 out of every 4 cryptocurrency holders globally and has more than 5 million registered users. The live trading of STX on this exchange will increase global access to the Blockstack network.

Muneeb Ali, CEO of Blockstack PBC commented on the STX addition to KuCoin, “This listing is an important one for our overall ecosystem. KuCoin’s strong global presence will enable the Blockstack ecosystem to make further progress after a very busy 12 months for the company. Kucoin prides itself on conducting extensive research to list quality projects in the blockchain industry, and we are thrilled for our project to be a part of its community.”

The Stacks token plays a very vital role in Blockstack’s ecosystem. STX tokens are used for registration of internet assets and will be consumed as fuel for smart contracts written in Clarity. The Stacks token is also a key aspect of the upcoming Stacks 2.0 launch. With the launch of Stacks 2.0, STX miners will be able to forward bitcoin (BTC) to participate in mining, and STX holders will be able to earn Bitcoin by participating in consensus.

Stacks are vital to Blockstack’s ecosystem and are used for registration of internet assets and will be consumed as fuel for smart contracts written in Clarity. As part of the anticipated Stacks 2.0 launch in mid-2020, internet assets on the Stacks blockchain will anchor to Bitcoin. The interconnection of Stacks with Bitcoin provides a scalable foundation for a Web 3.0 rooted in the security of Bitcoin.

This listing follows Blockstack’s first annual report filed with the SEC. The Stacks (STX) token is believed to be the first and only crypto asset listed on CoinMarketCap for which regular disclosures are filed with the SEC, reflecting an unparalleled level of transparency in the crypto industry.

STX tokens are also currently available for trading on Binance’s global exchange and HashKey Pro’s institutional exchange.

KuCoin Loses $150 Million Due to Security Breach But Compensation to Follow

KuCoin, a Singapore-based crypto exchange, has disclosed the suspicious withdrawal of large amounts of Bitcoin, ERC-20, and Ether from its hot wallets worth about $150 million. Nevertheless, the security breach did not affect its cold wallets as they remained unharmed and safe.

Abnormalities detected

The crypto exchange revealed that its internal risk-monitoring system raised the red flag after noticing abnormalities on September 26. More alerts about abnormal transfers from its hot wallets kept trickling in, and this was a clear indication that something was amiss. As per the announcement:

“According to the latest internal security audit report, part of Bitcoin, ERC-20 and other tokens in KuCoin’s hot wallets were transferred out of the exchange, which contained few parts of our total assets holdings.”

On the other hand, users had started complaining about difficulties withdrawing their assets from the crypto exchange across various social media platforms. Nevertheless, they were assured that their funds were safe.

Insurance fund compensation

In a subsequent live stream, Johnny Lyu, KuCoin CEO, asserted that the company’s insurance fund could entirely cover the hacked funds. He also noted that the lost investments were nothing to worry about because they represented a small part of the firm’s total assets holdings.

Lyu confessed that at least one hacker stole its hot wallets’ private keys, but this was not the case with the cold wallets as they are not connected to the internet. KuCoin was also in touch with the authorities to help with investigations.

The company did not stop there because it contacted other crypto exchanges like Huobi Global, BitMex, OKEx, Binance, and Bitfinex to assist with inquiries by flagging down the hackers’ wallet address.

According to leading blockchain tracking and analytics provider Whale Alert, scammers have been on a stealing spree as they have made away with Bitcoin worth $24 million in the first half of 2020.

Image source: Unsplash

Bitcoin and Ethereum Prices Unaffected Despite $150M Hack Suffered by KuCoin

Major coin exchange KuCoin reported a huge security breach that resulted in the loss of $150 million worth of Bitcoin, ERC-20 tokens, and Ether that were stored in its hot wallets. However, despite the huge blow suffered by the cryptocurrency exchange, Ethereum and Bitcoin prices have been unaffected on the market.

Stolen crypto will leave a blockchain trail

Crypto traders on their end have also been unfazed by the possibility that Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) prices may potentially dip as a result of the hacker’s attempt to sell off his stolen ERC-20 funds.

It has been observed that the KuCoin hacker has tried to sell off his stolen ERC-20 tokens on Uniswap. However, though this method would allow the anonymous hacker to obtain Ether once the ERC-20 tokens were converted, the stolen amount would still leave traces, as it runs on Ethereum blockchain.

With block explorers, the crypto trail can easily be traced. This will enable coin exchanges to suspend suspicious exchange addresses associated with the stolen crypto and lead them to the hacker.

With the stolen assets amounting to millions of dollars, any attempts to sell off the funds would also prove to be a risky task.

KuCoin alerts other exchanges, Tether freezes funds

Since the security breach, KuCoin has been quick to react to the security leak, taking matters into its own hands and alerting other coin exchanges of the hack. Bitfinex, Binance, Huobi Global, OKEx, and BitMex were among the crypto exchanges that were contacted.

Chief technical officer of Bitfinex and Tether (USDT), Paolo Ardoino announced that Tether had also frozen $33 million worth of USDT in an attempt to avoid the stolen crypto from being laundered. He said:

“Tether can decide to freeze funds in 2 situations: law enforcement/regulator request; funds are sent to unrecoverable addresses (completely at tether discretion). This ability does not entitle crypto users to participate to stupid scams or paying less attention.”

DeFi tokens, ETH, and BTC unfazed

With KuCoin’s active effort to regain the funds, it has been increasingly difficult for the anonymous hacker to liquidate the funds. It has also been observed that DeFi tokens, Ethereum, and Bitcoin’s prices have barely been impacted by the hack, with Ether’s price barely budging from its $350 level.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin has even surged higher than last week, sitting at around $10,930, according to data on CoinGecko. Bitcoin’s consolidation above the $10,700 point may be a potential indicator that the overall market sentiment is strong, as the crypto asset’s price was unaffected despite a huge security breach.

Uniswap Surpasses $2 Billion in Total Value Locked Amid KuCoin Hacker Dumping on the DEX

Decentralized exchange platform Uniswap, recently became the first decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol to surpass $2 billion in total value locked (TVL). At press time, there are $2.06 billion of cryptocurrencies locked in the Uniswap protocol, the highest any DeFi protocol has ever reached.

While Uniswap has become the first DeFi protocol to hit $2 billion in TVL, according to DeFi Pulse, Uniswap’s dominance is currently at 18.59 percent, while the entire DeFi market has $11.11 billion in TVL, at press time.

Taking second and third place in TVL, are the decentralized lending protocols Maker and Aave. Maker’s TVL is at $1.95 billion and Aave at $1.56 billion, not far away from hitting $2 billion either.

Uniswap only became the top DeFi protocol not long after launching its own governance token, UNI. Within hours of the launch of the UNI token, the protocol has seen a surge in popularity, and its token was shortly launched on a range of cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance and Coinbase.

Users were in a rush to claim Uniswap tokens allocated to them, which caused a massive Ethereum network congestion, leading to a spike in transaction fees on the network. Uniswap accounted for 35% of the total gas consumption on Sept. 18, where gas prices were recorded as high as 700 gwei.

Uniswap’s token has also recently defied the market odds, while the cryptocurrency market was trading in red, UNI had been able to rebound. While the Uniswap token had been able to make slight gains while the crypto market was plunging, it could mean that the DeFi industry could still anticipate greater institutional adoption in the future.

Uniswap might have been leveraged for KuCoin hacker dump

KuCoin crypto exchange recently disclosed a possible hack, as there was a suspicious withdrawal of large amounts of Bitcoin, ERC-20 tokens, and Ether from its hot wallets, worth around $150 million.

The KuCoin hacker has tried to sell off his stolen ERC-20 tokens on Uniswap. However, though this method would allow the anonymous hacker to obtain Ether once the ERC-20 tokens were converted, the stolen amount would still leave traces, as it runs on the Ethereum blockchain.

The hacker tried to swap ERC-20 tokens on the decentralized exchange Uniswap, including a particular token called “Ocean.” This move dragged the Ocean token down by 4 percent in less than an hour. Analysts have been closely observing on-chain activity, as a great number of other ERC-20 tokens have been obtained by the hacker.

We Have Sufficient Evidence to Identify Actors Behind Massive Hack on Crypto Exchange, says KuCoin CEO

KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu has tweeted that they have found sufficient evidence to identify the actors responsible for the massive hack that left the crypto exchange losing more than $280 million worth of cryptocurrencies. The KuCoin CEO has said that they have now officially involved law enforcement agents and police in taking action in the investigation.

How Crypto Companies Responded towards KuCoin’s Plight

Lyu mentioned that KuCoin has been collaborating with other crypto exchanges and projects to recover some of the stolen funds. As a result, various crypto projects worked to render useless or froze most of their assets. Several teams updated their blockchain to prevent the thieves from liquidating the stolen assets where possible.

Bitfinex and Tether alone froze $33 million worth of the US dollar-pegged stablecoin (USDT). Other projects such as Akropolis, VIDT-Datalink, Ocean Protocol, and others also took several measures like blacklisting, forking, and freezing to prevent the hackers from transferring or using the funds.

Most of the affected cryptocurrencies in the hacking incident were DeFi and ERC-20 tokens. Since centralized exchanges can easily freeze crypto assets sent to their platforms, the hackers of KuCoin chose to launder the tokens using decentralized exchanges. The culprits sold more than $13 million of the cryptocurrencies on decentralized exchanges.

According to Lyu’s latest update, another $64 million worth of tokens has been recovered, hence bringing to the total amount of recovered funds to $204 million since October 1.

Although $204 million in crypto assets are said to be now out of control of the suspicious addresses, data provided by the Whale Alert showed that millions of dollars of the stolen funds were transferred through Uniswap, therefore making cryptocurrencies untouchable.

Following the hacking incident, KuCoin halted its crypto trading services. The CEO has today given an update saying that the crypto exchange is slowly re-opening deposit and withdrawal functions for certain digital assets affected. Lyu has further notified that customers can now withdraw and deposit more than 30 cryptocurrencies with more to follow, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT.

KuCoin Hit with Massive Hacking

KuCoin, the Singapore-based crypto exchange, suffered a major cyber hack on September 26, an incident that made the company losing about over $150 million. What appeared as a technical issue rapidly developed into something big. The criminals used a leaked private key to gain access to the exchange’s hot wallet, and consequently transferred hundreds of millions of dollars from the exchange’s wallet to an address unrelated to KuCoin.

Hacked Crypto Exchange KuCoin Back In Business With Crypto Deposit and Withdrawals

Cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin is back in business as the exchange revealed that it has completed its wallet security upgrade following its recently suffered hack.

According to the update posted by the Singapore-based exchange, the KuCoin wallet security strategy upgrade was conducted for three major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Tether (USDT).

Per the announcement, the service status for Tether (USDT) was highlighted to acknowledge both the deposits and withdrawal of ERC-20-USDT transactions while only deposits, not withdrawals, are available for both EOS-USDT and TRC-20-USDT based transactions. OMNI-USDT is yet to be back online for either deposits or withdrawals.

Also following the upgrade, KuCoin informed users that BTC, ETH, USDT have all generated new deposit addresses. The exchange noted that despite the fact that the old addresses are still functional, it is recommended for every user to update their deposit addresses as soon as possible. The exchange affirmed that all services will be available in a short while.

KuCoin Hack In Retrospect

The security mishap suffered by KuCoin currently ranks as one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchange hacks to date. As Blockchain.news earlier reported, the hack was discovered following the suspicious withdrawal of large amounts of Bitcoin, ERC-20, and Ether from its hot wallets worth about $150 million.

Despite the hack affecting the site’s hot wallets, the cold wallets were reportedly shielded and the exchange responded to the hackers by collaborating with other exchanges including Binance, Bitfinex, Huobi Global amongst others to foil the attack. Through the collaboration by the entire crypto community, KuCoin CEO, Johnny Lyu announced that they have found sufficient evidence to identify the criminals behind the massive hack on the crypto exchange.

With initial fears of going bankrupt, the exchange was set to pay compensations to users from KuCoin’s insurance funds which the CEO noted is enough to entirely cover the hacked funds.

$3.5M of Stolen Crypto Linked to KuCoin Hack Moved

On-chain data analytics have reported that KuCoin hackers have been on the move lately, as a total of $3.5 million of stolen funds were transferred from an unknown wallet.

Per blockchain tracker Whale Alert’s announcement, it appears that 1.7 million DX ($2.4 million) of stolen funds have been transferred “from Kucoin Hack 2020 to unknown wallet.” In addition to this, it appears that the attackers have also moved 26.5 million Dragonchain and 8.7 million REQ tokens to unknown wallets, all belonging to crypto stolen during the infamous KuCoin hack.

Attackers have been actively looking to convert their stolen funds. The KuCoin cryptocurrency exchange was hacked earlier this year and the breach resulted in over $150 million of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies stolen from the coin exchange. The hack was a result of a leaked private key, which unlocked numerous hot wallets found on the Singaporean-based crypto exchange, KuCoin.

Since the stolen crypto assets run on the Ethereum blockchain, the hacker’s digital transactions could be traced, and blockchain specialists have reported that the hackers have been attempting to convert their funds for a while.

Interpol provides resources to fight cybercrime

Numerous law enforcers across the globe have attempted to crack down on the number of cybercrime cases ongoing. To further the mission to stop cybercrime and ransomware attacks, Interpol has recently launched two services to facilitate communications between law enforcement agencies pertaining to cybercrime. In a statement, Interpol said:

“Cybercrime is one of the most prolific forms of transnational crime. Highly complex cyberthreats such as malware, Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) and ransomware bring new challenges to law enforcement.”

The Cybercrime Collaborative Platform-Operation is the first one of its kind created by Interpol to provide an all-around information database that could be leveraged globally by investigators to fight cybercrime. Interpol also created “Cybercrime Knowledge Exchange,” which can be leveraged by anyone to deliver information on cybercrime that is not necessarily linked to official investigations, but can be “used to discuss the latest cybercrime trends and prevention strategies.”

KuCoin Exchange Restores All Token Deposit and Withdrawal Services Following Massive Hack

KuCoin announced yesterday that the withdrawal and deposit services for all tokens will finally be resumed on the crypto exchange.

The Singapore-based digital asset platform suffered what was considered one of the biggest hacks in cryptocurrency history back in September, losing more than $150 million worth of Bitcoin, ERC-20 tokens, and Ether stored in hot wallets. The huge security breach was a result of a stolen private key.

Following the attack, many other cryptocurrency exchanges froze large amounts of Tether to prevent the hackers from liquidating and swapping their funds. KuCoin also took matters into its own hands by dumping old hot wallet addresses. It then secured the remaining funds by transferring assets into new hot wallets. KuCoin also froze deposits and withdrawals on the exchange. Nevertheless, the hack was a huge blow for KuCoin.

Currently, it is undergoing judicial proceedings for some tokens. For the affected cryptocurrencies, daily withdrawal limits will be implemented. To make up for this, the trading fees will be waived for the tokens in question. The “zero fee rule” will last until the withdrawal limit is lifted.

KuCoin crypto exchange seems to be undergoing a lot of revamping, as its official Twitter account is also “temporarily restricted” at the time of writing, indicating that there has been “unusual activity” on the account, according to Twitter.

For the lost funds, KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu had previously assured all customers that it was going to be taken care of. He said that the company’s insurance fund will cover the hacked funds.

Is financial theft easier to trace with crypto?

Although the crypto firm has managed to recover 84% of the digital assets affected by the KuCoin hack, scammers have still been known to be on the move lately in an attempt to convert their stolen funds. Over 2 million worth of stolen crypto was reported by Blockchain.news to have been transferred to an unknown wallet on November 5.

However, since the stolen crypto assets run on the Ethereum blockchain, the hackers’ digital transactions could be traced by on-chain analytics.

With the rise of crypto adoption overtaking the financial world, an advantage of digital assets running on blockchain technologies may be that compared to traditional fiat, financial crypto theft may be easier to trace. The advantages of crypto transactions are that they have a digital footprint, for the most part, are permanently stored on nodes, and can be retraced by law enforcement in that manner.

Financial theft that can otherwise take years to track can therefore be pursued and resolved by law enforcement in a matter of weeks or months, as evidenced by the infamous Twitter hack for Bitcoins that happened this year. It only took three months for authorities to clamp down on the culprits.

5 of the Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges to Use in 2021

Unless you were living in a cave, the fervour that consumed the crypto markets in the final few months of 2020 wouldn’t have escaped your attention. With the world continuing to feel the devastating effects of the pandemic, bitcoin went on a face-melting tear, surging past its previous all-time high in December, eclipsing $30k in the New Year, and surpassing $40k a week later.

Coupled with several positive developments in the industry, including PayPal’s decision to support digital assets and rising institutional interest, the favourable price action fueled a fresh wave of adoption. Today, there are thousands of cryptocurrencies to choose from, and though bitcoin is by far the best-known, it’s not alone in offering the potential for huge returns.

Cryptocurrency exchanges remain the primary gateway to the industry. Many give users the chance to buy digital assets with their credit or debit card and provide an opportunity to trade and earn a profit. Here are five of the best platforms currently available.

KuCoin

Based in Singapore but serving customers worldwide, KuCoin is one of the most advanced platforms on the planet. As well as offering spot, margin and futures trading, the highly liquid platform lets users lend out their digital assets to others to earn interest. To date, KuCoin has facilitated over 722 million trades with transaction volume exceeding $100 billion, with users able to pose questions of customer service agents available 24/7.

Once a crypto-only venue, KuCoin later contributed to a trend that saw a slew of platforms integrate fiat on/off-ramps, a move that helped push the industry closer to the mainstream. European payment provider Simplex handles the fiat-to-crypto particulars for KuCoin. Although the platform succumbed to a sophisticated hack in September 2020, it held itself accountable and managed to reimburse users who lost funds in the incident. You can’t say better than that.

BTSE

BTSE is an easy-to-use cryptocurrency exchange that offers both spot and futures trading. Like KuCoin, it enables the purchase and sale of cryptocurrency into fiat such as the US Dollar, Japanese Yen, Great British Pound, and the Euro. In fact, users can order a BTSE debit card that provides incentives such as reduced trading fees, unlimited free account transfers, bitcoin cashback and a generous monthly payment limit of €100,000.

Notable for its multi-asset margin and settlement, not to mention high leverage (100x), BTSE uniquely combines all fiat, crypto, and stablecoin pairs in one order book, something many traders appreciate from an organizational standpoint. What’s more, it claims to store 99.9% of user funds in cold storage, meaning users can trade confidently at all times.

Binance

Binance is one of the established giants of the cryptocurrency space and supports over 200 coins for deposit and withdrawal. A one-stop-shop for all your crypto needs, the Hong Kong-based platform offers margin, lending, futures, fiat ramps, mining pools, an earning and lending product, a DEX, a crypto debit card, and even an educational academy where you can bone up on the history of bitcoin and other topics. Binance Launchpad, meanwhile, is a token launch platform with an assortment of respectable projects under its belt.

With an average daily volume of $2 billion, the ability to handle 1.4 million transactions per second, and round-the-clock customer support, Binance has a lot going for it. Like KuCoin, Binance has fallen prey to hackers in the past, though it reimbursed affected users and has since upped its opsec.

Coinbase

Coinbase is another true heavyweight of the industry and Binance’s principal sparring partner for market dominance. A highly regulated platform founded in San Francisco in 2012, it is widely feted for its fraud prevention, secure custody and insurance, as well as its ease of use. Serving over 35 million verified users in 100+ countries, Coinbase features a regular portal for normal traders, Coinbase Pro for more advanced operators, and Coinbase Prime for institutional trading. Coinbase Earn, meanwhile, allows account-holders to earn digital assets simply by learning about them.

Like several other platforms, the U.S. exchange offers users a Visa debit card that allows them to spend any asset in their portfolio and earn rewards for each purchase. As a mark of its outstanding reputation, Coinbase has helped facilitate crypto purchases for some of the world’s biggest asset managers, including Microstrategy and One River Asset Management.

BitMax

One of several digital asset platforms based in Singapore, BitMax supports over 200 pairs and facilitates trading for spot, margin and futures. Trading services are divided into Standard and Professional, with the latter suitable for more advanced users. Besides an eye-catching trading window, BitMax offers several investment products including its own yield farming and staking services. The latter enables users to earn direct rewards simply for locking up their cryptocurrency for a set period of time.

Of most interest to new users will be BitMax’s Copy Trading feature, a subscription service that allows users to mimic the trades of successful professional traders. At present, BitMax users can take advantage of a 5-day free trial to get to grips with the service.

There you have it: five acclaimed crypto exchanges for those looking to expand their bitcoin holdings, speculate and earn rewards.

KuCoin Terminates Accounts of China’s Users, Following Other Cryptocurrency Exchanges

KuCoin cryptocurrency exchange has announced its intention to close all accounts associated with customers of mainland China, following the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) recent reviving its fresh crackdown on cryptocurrency trading.

On October 3, the Seychelles-based crypto exchange stated that all users from mainland China would have to close their accounts and withdraw their funds from the platform before December 31 2021.

Kucoin cited the decision triggered by the announcement recently made by Chinese authorities in late September. After China’s Central Bank announced the crackdown, KuCoin stated that it began conducting an internal review to assess what would be the most convenient action for its customers. As a result, the firm decided to leave China as the only option which complies with local regulations.

KuCoin stated: “To protect the rights and interests of users, we strongly recommend that relevant users transfer their assets to other platforms before 24:00 (UTC+8) on December 31, 2021”, and it will continue reminding them to do so up until such a date.

The exchange said that it has 8 million users on its platform, and according to data from CoinMarketcap, KuCoin traded $1.7 billion in the last 24 hours.

Exchanges Exiting China

KuCoin is the third large crypto exchange that made a similar announcement less than two weeks after China’s central bank doubled its cryptocurrency clampdown.

On September 26, the Binance exchange blocked new account registrations using Chinese mobile phone numbers, while Huobi Global stated that it would remove all mainland Chinese accounts by the end of the year.

More than 18 platforms offering services related to cryptocurrency have either announced that they are exiting the market in China or are now inaccessible. Another at least 11 firms have reportedly halted providing services to Chinese customers.

On Friday, September 24, the People’s Bank of China banned all cryptocurrency-related transactions. It warned employees of overseas-based exchanges that they would be investigated and called for increased censorship on crypto information providers.