Analysis Crypto by Thebittimes.Com

Lazarus group orchestrated nearly 17% of all crypto hacks throughout 2023, mainly targeting centralized platforms like exchanges. Five successful crypto heists masterminded by Lazarus, a North Korean-funded hacker organization, reportedly resulted in over $300 million stolen from digital asset service providers within 12 months.  The state-sponsored criminal actors enacted a change in strategy, switching from defi targets to centralized platforms, according to Immunifi, a leading blockchain bounty company. As of September 2023, the group had siphoned at least $270 million in 102 days, with services like Atomic Wallet suffering heavy losses. The $115 million ferried from Atomic Wallet remains the single-largest incident attributed to Lazarus during the year.  Lazarus is also believed to have launched attacks on CoinEx, crypto casino Stake, and digital payment processor CoinsPaid.  You might also like: Lazarus Group: hackers from country with no internet threaten defi ...

Private keys getting compromised took over $204 million across 14 security incidents in the third quarter of 2023. The third quarter of 2023 has been the “most financially damaging” quarter of the year, taking almost $700 million in digital assets across various security incidents, according to the quarterly report of blockchain security firm CertiK.  Within the report, CertiK highlighted that there was a total of 184 security incidents that happened in July, August and September 2023. The report highlighted that over $699 million in crypto assets were lost in the quarter , surpassing the first- quarter losses of $320 million and the second- quarter losses of $313 million. Within the types of exploits that led to the losses, private key compromises have been listed as the most damaging, taking over $204 million across 14 incidents. According to the report, the Multichain incident, where private keys were under the exclusive control of the project’s CEO, led to a loss of $125 mil...

In a stunning turn of events, former NFL quarterback Tom Brady faces financial turmoil after losing a staggering $30 million in the collapse of cryptocurrency giant FTX.  The now-worthless shares were part of Brady’s arrangement with FTX in 2021 when he was still an “ambassador” for the firm. Gisele Bundchen, his ex-wife, lost $18 million on worthless stock investments. Since FTX declared bankruptcy in November last year, Brady has suffered significant financial losses and faces legal trouble due to the company’s demise. After divorcing in October, Brady and Bundchen are now sued by FTX investors seeking payback from celebrity endorsers. The case, filed in federal court in Florida, names as defendants basketball great Shaquille O’Neal and many other individuals who allegedly failed to do enough research before endorsing FTX goods to the general public. You might also like: Former FTX compliance chief supports lawsuit against celebrity promote...

Weekly-realized losses peaked at $20.5 billion when Terra Luna (LUNC) imploded and reached $33 billion when 3AC and Celsius collapsed, according to Chainalysis. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has attempted to put the FTX collapse into perspective — comparing peak weekly-realized losses in the wake of the exchange’s collapse compared to previous major crypto collapses in 2022. The Dec. 14 report found the depegging of Terra USD (UST) in May saw weekly-realized losses peak at $20.5 billion, while the subsequent collapse of Three Arrows Capital and Celsius in June saw weekly-realized losses peak at $33 billion.  In comparison, weekly realized losses during the FTX saga peaked at $9 billion in the week starting Nov. 7, and have been reducing weekly since.  1/ Our data suggests that FTX’s demise hasn’t been crypto investors’ biggest issue this year. Both the depegging of Terra’s UST token & the collapse weeks later of Celsius & Three Arrows Capital (3AC) drove much bigger re...

According to Glassnode’s weekly on-chain report, Bitcoin’s (BTC) Realized Cap has declined to a level where all capital inflows since May 2021 have been wiped out. Although the Analysis platform does note a surge in on-chain activity, there is not enough volume to follow through. Source: Glassnode The FTX collapse witnessed a $4.43 billion ATH one-day loss. However, losses are decreasing when measured against a weekly moving average. Comparatively, the June sell-off experienced daily losses of over $700M for nearly two weeks. As per the report, the ratio between realized profit/loss has reached a new all-time low. Moreover, market losses were 14 times more than profit-taking events. This is probably due in part to the fact that the price action for the 2020–22 cycle is higher than the spot price. Extremely low Realized Profit/Loss ratios (for Bitcoin) of this magnitude have historically been associated with changes in the macroeconomic environment. Sourc...