The world of cryptocurrency saw massive controversies and issues last week, starting with the continued crash of Bitcoin that saw another crash last Monday when Germany sold off half of its BTC holdings. Another controversy was with the Maltese court's lawsuit against a former Crypto.com officer who is now facing extortion and money laundering charges.
(Photo : Tech Times)
Another record-breaking crypto hacking number was also recorded last week, with threat actors' work totaling as much as $1.38 billion in stolen assets in only the first half of 2024.
Germany Sold Half of its Bitcoin Assets, Prompting Another BTC Crash
(Photo : Kanchanara from Unsplash)
The poor performance of cryptocurrency's top coin last week saw a continuation after Germany decided to sell around half of its owned Bitcoin assets worth $900 million. Prior to that week, Bitcoin closed at $56,000, its lowest valuation during this time since February, also known for dipping to $53,000 before bouncing back and settling to $56,000.
Germany dumped as much as 16,309 Bitcoins to start off its week, moving it to external addresses and renowned crypto exchange platforms including Bitstamp, Coinbase, and Kraken.
Because of this action, Bitcoin saw a three percent drop at to start of the week. The good thing is for this week's start, Bitcoin has already bounced back to $62,600, seeing an almost 10 percent increase in its performance after two weeks of crashing.
The Maltese court charged a former compliance officer of Crypto.com with extortion, money laundering, and unauthorized access to the company's computers last week. The defendant, Jose Luis Alonso Melchor, is facing nine charges in Malta for his alleged previous actions against the company and has been arraigned by the courts after being arrested.
Singapore's Crypto.com terminated Melchor after reportedly violating an attachment order which the company did not disclose. In retaliation, Melchor allegedly accessed Crypto.com's files illegally, and used these to threaten the company, demanding to be paid €44,00 ($47,644).
Melchor was considered a flight risk and was denied bail by Malta's magistrate, Nadia Vella, alongside a freezing order.
Crypto Hackers: $1.38B Stolen in First Half of 2024
The rising numbers of stolen crypto doubled in size for the first half of 2024, with hackers taking as much as $1.38 billion from the global numbers according to a recent analysis. Among the massive attacks were attributed to the top five hackers which accounted for as much as 70 percent of the hacks, with different methods such as phishing and address poisoning.
According to CNBC (via TRM Labs), the numbers doubled from $657 million in stolen funds in the same period in 2023, now up to $1.38 billion from January 1 to June 24, 2024.
DMM Bitcoin saw the biggest hack in the first half, with as much as $300 million worth of Bitcoin stolen from the Japanese platform through address poisoning.
