SWIFT system will unite almost all blockchains. And it will give traditional financial institutions access to various cryptocurrencies on one platfor, Crypto-Upvotes expert review

Interbank messaging system SWIFT and decentralized oracle network Chainlink announced that they are working together on a proof-of-concept (PoC) blockchain project. This project will allow traditional financial companies to conduct transactions on a platform that supports virtually all blockchains. Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov and SWIFT Chief Strategy Officer Jonathan Ehrenfeld Sole announced it at the SmartCon 2022 conference in New York.

SWIFT is the most widely used platform for traditional cross-border transactions, connecting more than 11,000 banks worldwide. Now it can take up to several days for a payment to go through this network. And moving to blockchain should significantly reduce that time.

Project PoC will use Chainlink CCIP (Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol) to send SWIF messages across different blockchains. This will accelerate the adoption of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in traditional finance, Nazarov said.

SEC accused the Hydrogen platform of illegally distributing securities. Including through Airdrop

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ruled that Airdrop (the free distribution of tokens) are illegal means of distributing securities. The charges against Hydrogen Technology Corporation indicate this. As well as its former CEO Michael Ross Kane and Moonwalkers CEO Tyler Ostern.

An SEC lawsuit says that in 2018, New York-based Hydrogen, which had ceased operations at this point, created a Hydro token. And then publicly distributed it via airdrop. These were rewards to individuals for promoting their token, rewards to employees, and in the form of direct sales on cryptoplatforms. Likewise, the SEC alleges that Hydrogen hired South African firm Moonwalkers after distributing its token. This was done to create the false appearance of market activity regarding Hydro token. As a result of this manipulation, Hydrogen made a profit of more than $2 million.

“Companies cannot avoid applying securities laws by arranging unregistered offers and sales of their securities as rewards, compensation or other similar methods,” said SEC Deputy Director of the Division of Enforcement Carolyn M. Welshahans.

Our experts also noted that SEC has requested injunctions against defendants for participation in certain types of activities. And including the distribution of securities.

Perhaps now we are seeing the first judicial precedent that will allow a complete ban on any Airdrop

Scammer was offered a reward of 1% of the stolen money from arbitrage bot mev-bot. For return of the remaining amount within 24 hours.

Hacking of arbitrage mev-bot led to the loss of 1.1 K ETH (about $1.45 million). It was reported on Twitter by PeckShield, a cybersecurity company. Analysis of this transaction showed that cybercriminals used a code vulnerability to substitute an arbitrary address for the funds transfer.

Mev-bots (also called flash bots) search for transactions suitable for arbitrage trading. The use of such programs makes it possible to profit from price differences on different exchanges.

Funds stolen in an attack on a bot called 0xbad belonged to many of its users. PeckShield reports that the community has announced that it is willing to consider the hack as the work of a “white hacker.” If the stolen funds are returned by the end of the day on Sept. 28. It has also been offered to fence 1% of the stolen money. Otherwise, an investigation will be initiated.

Our experts note that usually, if a hacker is recognized as a “white hacker”. Affected companies leave him as a reward of 10% of the funds stolen by him. But in this situation they offered only 1%.

Christies platform will conduct full auctions. Which will include post-sale transactions, on Ethereum blockchain

Auction house has launched its own NFT-marketplace called Christies 3.0. The platform will run on the Ethereum network. Auctions will be conducted entirely using blockchain technology, according to their website.

Previously, one of oldest auction houses has already repeatedly conducted sales of NFT-artworks. Throughout 2021, it sold nearly $150 million worth of NFT at its auctions. Payments for digital works of art were made in Ethereum. And the trading house received commissions in traditional ways, in fiat currencies.

Our experts noticed to participate in auctions on Christies  3.0 platform. A new user will need to connect an existing cryptocurrency wallet. Of cryptocurrencies auction site accepts only Ethereum for payment. Taxes will also be accrued in ETH.

Remind that in March 2021, an electronic picture of a modern artist Beeple. And NFT token attached to it was sold at Christie’s auction for a record $69.35 million. Artwork of artist became the first lot in history of Christie’s auction house, which was sold for cryptocurrency.

Harmony blockchain developers have changed their plan to give users their money back. Which were stolen in Horizon blockchain bridge hack.

The Harmony network team has abandoned its plan to issue billions of ONE tokens to reimburse customers. Who were affected by the Horizon blockchain bridge hack, according to the platform’s blog. This proposal was put to a vote. As a result, it became clear that this community did not support this plan.

In late June, a hacker hacked Horizon Bridge. Which allowed transferring tokens between the Harmony blockchain and other networks. He then stole about $100 million worth of cryptocurrency. That incident led to the loss of 14 different types of digital assets on about 65,000 wallets.

The Harmony proposal included a monthly refund to customers in ONE tokens for three years and a hardfork. Two upgrade options were put before their community for evaluation. The first option is 100% compensation with an issue of 4.97 billion ONE. And second option is 50% compensation with issue of 2.48 billion coins

Instead, developers propose to use project treasury for reconstruction. And also for development of this project. A detailed description of how Harmony will develop mechanisms for the effective use of funds. Which are allocated for recovery, will be published separately.

Our experts say that in late June, a few days after they stole assets Harmony developers announced a reward of $ 1 million for recovery money. Then later, rewards were increased to $10 million.

White hacker known as Riptide discovered a bug in the Arbitrum protocol code. This error could have resulted in loss of millions of dollars

“White hacker” under nickname Riptide received 400 ETH (about $531 K) from Arbitrum protocol for finding vulnerability in the code, about which he wrote in his blog. Because of the critical bug he found, scammers could make millions of dollars. They could divert funds between Ethereum and the new version of the Arbitrum Nitro protocol, which launched a few weeks ago.

“White hacker” Riptide is in business of identifying bugs in codes whose developers offer rewards for doing so on the ImmuneFi platform. According to Riptide, there is a 100% certainty that developers will make a mistake when writing contracts. Or deploying or updating smart contracts.

Riptide knew that Arbitrum Nitro, Ethereum network scalability solution, was running an update and scrutinized the code. And as a result, he discovered a place in the program where the scammer could set up his own address to accept all incoming deposits in ETH.

Riptide reported vulnerability to Arbitrum developers and was rewarded with 400 ETH. However he wasn’t satisfied with his reward. Because the maximum reward for finding the bug, given by the protocol team, was $2 million. He commented on his reward negatively. Riptide stated that it is a bad idea to pay little for such mistakes. This way companies make “white hackers” think about joining ranks of “black hackers”.

Creation of algorithmic stablecoins, working similarly to failed Terra USD coin, may become illegal

The U.S. Congress will consider a new bill to regulate cryptocurrencies. The bill could ban creation and issuance of algorithmic stablecoins for two years, Bloomberg reported. According to this document, the prohibition will apply to cryptocurrencies. Which are linked to prices of fiat currencies by another digital asset of the same issuer.

An example of such a cryptocurrency is stablecoin of failed project Terra UST. The collapse of this coin, supported by Luna token, began on May 8, 2022. On that day, UST lost its connection to USD after a one-time sale of tokens worth about $300 million. The collapse of this stablecoin led to billions of dollars in losses for ordinary investors.

The bill would also allow banks and nonbanks to issue their own stablecoins. And it would prohibit companies from pooling customer funds with company assets to protect consumers in case of company bankruptcy. The bill is currently in its drafting stage. Perhaps a vote on the bill will take place as early as next week, Bloomberg reports, citing unnamed sources.

Our experts note that the U.S. Congress continues to work actively to regulate cryptocurrency sector and increase control in this area.

A hacker took advantage of a vulnerability in OmniBridge protocol. Hacked and withdrew funds from it in new Ethereum PoW network tokens

The first hack of a smart contract in the new Ethereum PoW network brought a scammer 200 ETHW (about $1,000). Theft of funds was possible because OmniBridge protocol (a bridge to transfer funds between different blockchains) in PoW network. He received a second message about transaction already made in Ethereum network. This was reported on Twitter by BlockSec, a cybersecurity company.

On morning of September 15, The Merge update took place on Ethereum’s main network. It switched altcoin from Proof-of-Work protocol to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). The token of the old version of this network received symbol ETHW.

On September 18, a scammer transferred 200 WETH via the OmniBridge protocol of Ethereum blockchain to Gnosis network. And then he repeated the same transaction message on the new PoW blockchain. To get 200 ETHW from a copy of the OmniBridge smart contract on this network.

Our experts explained that this attack was made possible by a vulnerability in the OmniBridge smart contract. It uses an incorrect unique blockchain identifier. The OmniBridge smart contract mixed up the networks and mistakenly paid a scammer.

The Ethereum PoW network itself was not hacked. The stolen funds belonged to the OmniBridge protocol. However, our experts warn a crypto community. That similar attacks using PoW blockchain and ETHW tokens can happen to other interconnect bridges.

ETHW rate has been falling on centralized exchanges since the start of hardfork. But its price in the old version of the network rose on Friday September 16 to 16,400 USDT on decentralized exchanges.

SEC filed a lawsuit against Ian Balina, a famous member of cryptocurrency community. The lawsuit states that all Ethereum blockchain transactions take place in USA territory

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claims that transactions on Ethereum are made in United States. Because blockchain validators (network nodes) are clustered more tightly in the United States than in any other country. This claim was made in a lawsuit against famous member of cryptocurrency community Ian Balina.

The lawsuit was filed Monday, Sept. 19. Balina is accused of breaking law while promoting Sparkster Cryptocurrency ICO (SPRK) in 2018. Which raised about $30 million from 4,000 investors.

This is not the first time the agency has initiated such litigation. However, paragraph 69 of this lawsuit states : ” At that point, their ETH contributions were validated by a network of nodes on the Ethereum blockchain,
which are clustered more densely in the United States than in any other country. As a result, those
transactions took place in the United States.”

According to Etherscan, more than 46% of all Ethereum nodes are now operating in the US.

What this means for Ethereum

Our experts think that mentions of transaction processing by US-based nodes in a lawsuit against blogger Ian Balina. It can also be interpreted as the SEC  attempt to extend its jurisdiction over any transactions in Ethereum network according to geographical principle. And in the future, this could become a precedent and reinforce the current fears of transaction censorship. Which have arisen since sanctions were imposed on Tornado Cash mixer.

Following the Ethereum move to Proof-of-Stake. And given its high level of centralization, Coinbase, Kraken and Binance are estimated by Nansen to account for 30.25% of ETH blocked in stacking. The U.S. government could seriously consider bringing this space under its control.

In future case law, similar lawsuits from the SEC may await other cryptocurrencies. Which work on the Proof-of-Stake algorithm.

New White House directives are aimed at developing financial services industry. As well as to simplify unlimited transactions and fight against scammers in cryptocurrency world

The White House presented first ever concept of regulation of cryptocurrency market in USA, writes CNBC. The new proposals had been under development for six months. This came after President Joe Biden called on authorities in March to study risks and benefits of cryptocurrencies and submit official reports.

One of points of concept is aimed at combating illegal activities in cryptocurrencies. In particular, it is proposed to consider amendments to Bank Secrecy Law. These are laws prohibiting disclosure of information and against money transfers without a license. It is necessary that they are directly related to providers of cryptocurrency services.

The White House proposals also specifically mention potential for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). The concept states that digital dollars can make the U.S. payment system more efficient. And creating a basis for further technological innovations that will allow for faster trans-border transactions.

Our experts also noted that the U.S. government believes that digital currencies, especially stablecoins, need to be strictly regulated. Otherwise, they can lead to “devastating effects. This concept points to a collapse of cryptocurrency TerraUSD, which resulted in a series of bankruptcies. And cumulative damage of which amounted to almost $600 billion.