US Treasury Report Warns of Defi’s Threat to National Security, Authors Conclude Fiat Is Used in Illicit Finance More Than Crypto

The U.S. Treasury has released a 42-page report assessing the risks of decentralized finance (defi). The report states that specific nation-state adversaries, cybercriminals, ransomware attackers, thieves, and scammers are using defi to “transfer and launder their illicit proceeds.” The Treasury’s report…

Number of Irretrievably Lost BTC Now 6 Million — Cane Island Manager

The number of irretrievably lost bitcoins has now reached 6 million, which leaves 13.3 million as coins that remain in circulation, Timothy Peterson of Cane Island Alternative Advisors has said. Peterson added that out of the 1.7 million bitcoins that will…

‘Next Round of Bailouts Is Here’ — Bitcoin and Precious Metals Soar Amid Speculation of Fed Policy Change

At around 7:30 a.m. ET, the price of bitcoin skyrocketed past the $27,000 range to a high of $27,025 per unit. Precious metals, or PMs, like gold and silver, also rose between 1.98% and 2.12% against the U.S. dollar over the…

ESG Analyst Daniel Batten Reveals Dynamic Charts Showing Bitcoin’s 52.6% Sustainable Energy Use

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) analyst Daniel Batten said Tuesday that the computational backbone of the Bitcoin network now uses 52.6% sustainable energy. Batten and onchain analyst Willy Woo created Dynamic Bitcoin ESG Charts to showcase the protocol’s progress. Contrary to…

Onchain Researchers Discover $63M in Ethereum From Harmony Bridge Attack Moved, Hackers Attempt to Launder Funds on Major Exchanges

On Jan. 15, 2023, onchain researchers discovered that funds stolen during the Harmony bridge attack had been moved. The suspected thieves, who are allegedly associated with the North Korean hacking syndicate Lazarus Group, moved 41,000 ethereum, worth $63.2 million at current…

Recently Signed 2009 Bitcoin Block Reward Linked to Hal Finney’s Set of BTC Transactions

At the end of November, an unknown person signed a signature tied to an extremely old block reward mined on Jan. 19, 2009, and the user published a message and verified signature linked to the reward on the forum bitcointalk.org. The…

Onchain Analysis Verifies the Number of BTC Held by Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust

After Grayscale Investments shared information concerning the company’s product holdings, people questioned why the firm wouldn’t share the public addresses associated with the crypto assets it holds. However, on Nov. 23, OXT researcher Ergo published a Twitter thread featuring onchain forensics…

Onchain Data Reveals Alameda Acquired Specific Tokens a Month Before FTX Listings

According to a report stemming from the blockchain analytics firm Argus, Sam Bankman-Fried’s trading firm Alameda Research obtained tokens ahead of FTX.com listings. The report claims that Alameda acquired roughly $60 million worth of tokens before the digital assets were scheduled…

Zksync Devs Plan to Launch Layer 3 Scaling Solution Called ‘Opportunity’ in Q1 2023

Matter Labs, the team behind the Ethereum layer two (L2) scaling protocol Zksync, revealed the developers plan to launch a layer three (L3) proof of concept called “Opportunity” in the first quarter of 2023. The team says that the prototype of…

Chainalysis Report Says $2.2 Million in Crypto Has Been Sent to Pro-Russian Groups in Ukraine

According to a report stemming from the blockchain intelligence company Chainalysis, the firm identified 54 pro-Russian groups that have “collectively received over $2.2 million worth of cryptocurrency.” The paramilitary groups in Ukraine primarily received bitcoin and ether donations but also got…