Polkadot’s decentralized finance (DeFi) hub Acala suffered a major attack on its newly launched liquidity pool on Sunday. The exploit allowed the hacker to mint more than 1.2 billion aUSD, the project’s stablecoin. 
Shortly after the hack, the Acala team updated users on Twitter, noting that the exploit originated from a “misconfiguration of the iBTC/aUSD liquidity pool.” The misconfiguration has now been rectified, according to the project. 

We have identified the issue as a misconfiguration of the iBTC/aUSD liquidity pool (which went live earlier today) that resulted in error mints of a significant amount of aUSD1/
— Acala (@AcalaNetwork) August 14, 2022
Acala Suspends On-chain Activities
Onchain data reveals that most of the minted stablecoins are still in the Acala

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has helped recover crypto assets worth about $450,000 stolen from Curve Finance users. The funds represent about 83% of the total amount stolen from users. 
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao shared the update on Twitter today, noting that the Curve Finance hacker sent the assets to Binance using different techniques to bypass the exchange’s security. However, the company identified the transactions and froze the assets. 
Binance to Return Funds to Curve Finance Users
According to CZ, Binance will return the recovered $450,000 to the victims. The exchange is currently working with law enforcement to make that happen. 

Binance froze/recovered $450k of the Curve stolen funds, representing 83%+ of the hack. We are working with LE to return the

Polkadot’s innovation hub Astar Network has partnered with DeFi network Acala to boost decentralized finance (DeFi) by unlocking new opportunities and rewards for developers in the Polkadot ecosystem. 
The two entities have joined forces to launch a new DeFi program dubbed “Astar x Acala DeFi Rising.” 
The DeFi Rising Program
According to a press release seen by CryptoPotato, the program will allow developers to build apps on Astar’s dApp ecosystem while leveraging Acala’s suite of DeFi products, including deep liquidity from native assets such as aUSD, LDOT, and ACA. Developers will also receive rewards from Astar ecosystem teams. 
In addition, projects that create utility for aUSD on Astar can receive funding from Acala’s $250 million aUSD Ecosystem Fund and Astar’s

Earlier this month, the crypto industry suffered a huge setback after Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin UST depegged from the US dollar and caused LUNA to lose 99.9% of its value.
Shortly after the crash, Terraform Labs’ CEO Do Kwon proposed a revival plan for the Terra ecosystem. It centered on forking the current chain, abandoning UST, and creating a new token that will be distributed to investors based on the losses they incurred during the catastrophic event.
Do Kwon Shares Burn Address
The proposal was met with skepticism from members of the crypto community who suggested that Terra should burn LUNA instead to reduce the circulating supply of the asset.
As the pressure from the community continued to mount, with the hashtag #LunaBurn trending on Twitter, Kwon decided to

South Korea’s National Tax Service has reportedly ordered Terraform Labs, its co-founder Do Kwon, and other executives to pay a 100 billion won ($78 million) fine for tax evasion penalties.
The Genesis
According to local reports, the tax agency first launched an investigation into Terraform Labs and its subsidiaries in June last year on suspicion of corporate and income tax evasion.
The investigation found that two of the company’s subsidiaries were registered abroad in the Virgin Islands and Singapore. However, while the entities had foreign registration, the place of actual management of the firms was in South Korea.
In the country, corporate tax laws treat foreign-registered companies as domestic entities if the management and operations of firms are conducted in the

DeFi Land, a multi-chain agriculture simulation gaming project built on the Solana blockchain, has unveiled its first play-to-earn game created to gamify all aspects of decentralized finance (DeFi).
DeFi Land Launches New P2E Game
As per the press release shared with CryptoPotato, the game, scheduled to go live on May 18th at 8 PM UTC, will allow players to fish, shoot, farm, drive harvesters, carter for pets and do lots more.
In return, players will earn DFL and GOLDY, the governance and in-game tokens of the DeFi Land ecosystem. Players can use these tokens to upgrade, customize, craft, and repair their in-game non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Players are required to own at least one DeFi Land Gen-0 NFT before they can access the P2E feature. The NFT collection currently has

Billy Markus, co-founder of the popular memecoin Dogecoin (DOGE), said the great majority of cryptocurrency projects in the industry are nothing but scams and garbage with no real value to offer.
Markus: 95% of Crypto Projects are Scams
In a recent tweet, the Dogecoin creator argued that 95% of cryptocurrencies are worthless as they have succeeded in destroying the reputation of the entire industry.
According to Markus, top traditional financial players and most mainstream internet users have labeled the entire digital asset landscape as “garbage” and a scam because of the existence of bad players and projects within the space.

the reason why people think crypto is 95% scams and garbage and most crypto people are assholes is because crypto is 95% scams and garbage and

Two of the world’s major investment banks, Goldman Sachs and Barclays, recently participated in a $70 million Series A funding round for Elwood Technologies, the crypto trading platform founded by British hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard.
Goldman Sachs and Barclays Invest in Elwood
According to a Sunday report by the Financial Times, this funding round marked the first time that Elwood Technologies has sourced outside financing and brought the company’s valuation to $500 million.
The fundraising event saw contributions from several other notable investors, including crypto-friendly German bank Commerzbank, venture capitalist Dawn Capital, and Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital.
Elwood Technologies currently provides institutional investors with crypto portfolio management

The catastrophic failure of Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST), last week exacerbated the chaos in the crypto industry and accelerated plans to regulate the stablecoins market.
Following the market meltdown, global financial regulators started proposing different legislations to regulate stablecoins better and prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.
UK to Legalize and Regulate Stablecoins
Over the weekend, the United Kingdom Treasury revealed plans to legalize stablecoins as a payment medium in the country. Per the report by The Telegraph, the new development includes plans to regulate stablecoins, which comes as part of the financial legislation mentioned in the Queen’s Speech.
“Legislation to regulate stablecoins, where used as a means of

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) announced Monday that it will focus on digital assets this year as it expects to see more Aussies report capital gains or losses in their tax returns.
Aussies Are Engaging With Crypto
The tax regulator treats crypto assets as digital property, hence Aussies who sell their digital assets, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs), are expected to calculate and record their capital gains or losses in their tax returns.
For clarity, capital gain or capital loss is the difference between the price of an asset at the time it was purchased and the price at the time it was disposed of.  According to the ATO, disposal occurs when the digital asset holder sells, gifts, trades, converts, or uses it to obtain goods or services.
The ATO’s Assistant

When it comes to blockchain transactions, some mistakes are irreversible and could cost one a fortune. Sadly, though, every now and then, crypto investors make these as the most recent one was from the owner of Ape #6462, who sold the NFT for $200 USDC.
BAYC Holder Sells Ape #6462 for $200
On Sunday, Boredapebot, a Twitter handle that posts sales of Apes from the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection, revealed that someone sold Ape #6462 for a measly 200 USDC ($200).
Bored Ape #6462. Source: OpenSeaBAYC is one of the most expensive NFT collections in the market, with its floor price currently at 101.75 ETH ($206,000). Considering that Ape #6462 has some of the rarest attributes, which include a bone necklace, police motorcycle helmet, and a bored pizza, it is possible

Earlier this week, former English football star Michael Owen, alongside his business partner Oceidon, a Guernsey-based blockchain technology provider, rolled out a new non-fungible token (NFT) project dubbed Legacy. However, it quickly drew criticism.
An NFT Collection That Doesn’t Lose Value?
The partners claimed that the NFT collection was designed in such a way that its floor price can only increase but never go down, making it the first of its kind.
According to The Telegraph, Andrew Green, the co-founder of Oceidon, told users that they had devised a mechanism to ensure that the NFTs do not lose value even when there is low demand.
“We have come up with a way to prohibit people selling the NFTs for less than what they initially acquired them for,” Green said.
The duo

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has sentenced a 25-year-old Rhode Island cryptocurrency trader, popularly known as Coin Signals, to 42 months in prison for defrauding over 170 people of more than $5 million.
Coin Signals Trader Convicted
According to an official press release, the convict, Jeremy Spence, had solicited funds from investors via several crypto investment pools, which he ran from November 2017 to April 2019.
He created and managed several crypto funds, including the three biggest ones – the Coin Signals Bitmex Fund, the Coin Signals Alternative Fund, and the Coin Signals Long Term Fund. Spence claimed that his trades were doing well and generated enormous profits, prompting investors to send him cryptocurrencies like BTC and ETH to operate on

Digital asset investors residing in London are currently facing threats to the security of their holdings as a new wave of “crypto mugging” surfaces.
Muggers Are Targeting Crypto Investors
According to a recent coverage by the Guardian, London police have received countless anonymous reports of victims losing huge sums of money in crypto after their phones had been forcefully seized by muggers.
Armed with the knowledge that crypto transactions are irreversible, unlike bank transfers, the thieves target unsuspecting digital asset investors on the street and steal funds from their digital wallets after forcing them to hand over their phones.
In one of the reports, the victim was trying to order an Uber when muggers forced them to hand over their phone. Although the gang

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicted Luiz Capuci Jr., the CEO and co-founder of Mining Capital Coin (MCC), for allegedly running a $62 million fraud scheme.
Mining Capital Coin CEO Allegedly Misled Investors
According to the DOJ, Capuci and other unnamed members of his team had misled investors into thinking that MCC’s mining and investment program had massive profit-bearing potential.
Capuci claimed the firm has an international network of large-scale mining machines that could generate enormous profits and guaranteed returns if investors’ purchased the so-called “Mining Packages.”
The investment would allegedly be used to mine a new cryptocurrency, MCC’s native token dubbed “Capital Coin.” Capuci claimed the token was backed by the “biggest

In a recent interview with the Economic Times, billionaire investor and founder of Bridgewater Associates, Ray Dalio, acknowledged the potential of digital assets, especially Bitcoin, emphasizing their impressive performance over the past decade.
Dalio: Bitcoin Still Has Unresolved Issues
72-year-old American investor also noted that Bitcoin’s finite supply makes it similar to other universally accepted inflation hedges such as gold.
However, he doesn’t see central banks adopting Bitcoin as a reserve asset due to several issues such as privacy and ban in some countries.
“Still, there are issues with them. Transactions can be traced so privacy is an issue. They can be controlled, they can be shut down, they can be made illegal which tends to tap in during times when they

2TM Group, the holding company of Brazil’s first crypto brokerage Mercado Bitcoin, has ended its merger and acquisition talks with the leading US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Coinbase and 2TM End Buyout Talks
According to the report, Coinbase intended to acquire a controlling interest or a minority share in 2TM. CryptoPotato reported in March that the buyout talks first started late last year and that the potential acquisition was close to its final stage.
Although 2TM declined to comment on the matter, the Brazilian company had hired Wall Street powerhouse JPMorgan Chase & Co. to advise on the operation back in March.
Last week, Coinbase hired Fábio Tonetto Plein, a former Uber, and PicPay

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently revealed that the almost two-year lawsuit with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is drawing to its climax and could be resolved before the end of the year.
The Long-Awaited Climax Is Near
In an interview with Fox Business correspondent Charlie Gasparino, the Ripple boss acknowledged that the company’s ongoing legal battle with the SEC has gone “quite well.” He further noted that his company’s case will set a major precedent within the crypto space.
“The case has gone quite well, a lot of it has been skirmishes around discovery. But it’s clear that the judge understands that this is an important case and it is going to be a precedent. Now we’re getting close to summary judgment filings. Everything will be before

Popular cryptocurrency exchange CryptoCom has come under fire following its latest decision to slash its staking rewards. In a blog post published on Sunday, the platform revealed that effective June 1, it would cut down Cronos (CRO) rewards on card usage.
CryptoCom Slashes Card Rewards
As per the update, users with lower-tier cards, including the Midnight Blue and Ruby Steel, would get 0% on CRO rewards. Those with Royal Indigo and Jade Green would receive 0.5%; Icy White and Frosted Rose Gold would receive 1%, and users with the highest level of CryptoCom cards, Obsidian, would receive 2%.
The new update is a significant change in the CRO rewards, considering that the current rates are 1% for the lower tiers and over 8% for the highest tier.
Additionally, the exchange

Arthur Hayes, the co-founder and former CEO of leading crypto derivatives platform BitMEX, has predicted that Bitcoin’s price will reach the $1 million mark by the end of the current decade.
In a blog post published on Wednesday, Hayes gave a comprehensive breakdown of how the leading cryptocurrency would reach $1 million in eight years, a value that is 2,500% higher than its current price.
The Doom Loop
Hayes described a phenomenon he calls “The Doom Loop,” which represents three things countries across the globe do to finance their deficit – selling debt to domestic entities, selling debt to foreigners, and the central bank printing money.
He noted that ongoing geopolitical tensions are further exacerbating the already high inflation rates. At some point, however,

According to a recent report from global crypto market real-time data provider CryptoCompare, the total spot market rose by 10.5% in March, with transaction volumes reaching $1.6 trillion.
The document further revealed that approximately 69.9% of the total volume was accumulated by 15 of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, including Binance, Coinbase, Bitfinex, OKX, Huobi, FTX, and Kraken.
Binance Dominates the Crypto Spot Market
Binance alone captured 30.2% of the total spot market volumes, processing about $490 billion in spot transactions, a 15% increase from February volumes. While this figure is marginally below the exchange’s record market share of 33.7% in November 2021, Binance still managed to dominate the crypto spot market.
Crypto Spot Trading Volume. Source:

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicted 44-year-old Japheth Dillman, the founder of Block Bits Fund, for misleading investors into committing a total of $960,000 to a false arbitrage autotrader.
DOJ Indicts Block Bits Founder
Block Bits Fund was founded in 2017 during the ICO era. The company presented itself as a fund dedicated to cryptocurrencies, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), and blockchain technology. It promised investors high returns from the profit it supposedly generated by leveraging price discrepancies between digital currencies on different crypto exchanges.
According to the indictment, Dillman, alongside his partner David Mata, 42, allegedly misrepresented the level and capability of Block Bits by falsifying company records.
Prosecutors

Madison Cawthorn, a Republican congressman from North Carolina, has been accused of his involvement in a pump and dump crypto scheme dubbed Lets Go Brandon (LETSGO).
According to a recent report by the Washington Examiner, several regulatory watchdogs have implicated Cawthorn in an alleged insider trading scheme involving the relatively short-lived crypto project.
Let’s Gо Crypto Pump and Dump Scheme
Let’s Go Brandon is a memecoin named after the chant mocking President Joe Biden. Hedge fund manager James Koutoulas pioneered the project.
On December 29, 2021, Cawthorn posted on Instagram, “LGB legends. … Tomorrow we go to the moon!” He also admitted that he has a portion of the cryptocurrency in his portfolio.
Interestingly, on December 30, NASCAR driver Brandon Brown

Following Fidelity’s move to offer Bitcoin as part of its retirement 401(k) accounts, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor opined that the digital asset is a perfect fit for retirement, even better than bonds.
Saylor: Bitcoin is the Perfect Asset for Retirement
In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Saylor pointed out that Bitcoin is a much better investment choice than popular traditional asset classes, including gold, stocks, and bonds.
According to the MicroStrategy chief, the leading cryptocurrency is less risky and much safer than traditional assets, making it the perfect option for retirement.
“Bitcoin’s digital property and that makes it the perfect asset for a retirement plan. It’s less risky than bonds and stocks and commercial real estate and gold,” he said.

EMV-compatible layer 1 protocol, Flare, has received the Algorand Foundation Bridges SupaGrant to build a bridge that will connect the Bitcoin network with Algorand.
Flare to Bridge Bitcoin and Algorand
The grant partnership between both firms will help boost the growth of the Algorand ecosystem and the DeFi industry at large.
In an official press release shared with CryptoPotato on Tuesday, Flare noted that the bridge will enable secure and trustless interoperability between Algorand’s native token, ALGO, and BTC. It will also boost Algorand’s interoperability with other non-smart contract tokens, including DOGE, XRP, LTC, and XLM.
Speaking on the new partnership, Daniel Oon, Head of DeFi at Algorand Foundation, said,
“We’re excited to partner with Flare and welcome them

Leading blockchain data analytics platform Nansen recently released its quarterly analysis report, which revealed that the crypto market had witnessed a decline in 2022 compared to its 2021 activity volume.
The report, however, pointed out that the performance of leading blockchain networks, Polygon, BNB Chain, and Avalanche, remained fairly stable, with Avalanche standing out as a rising star among the pack.
Polygon Sees Adoption
According to the Nansen report, Polygon’s scalability, energy-efficient PoS system, and low gas fees compared to other blockchains like Ethereum boosted its adoption in 2021 by almost 1,000%.
However, the increased activity on the Polygon network came to an unexpected stop in the first quarter of 2022. But the average transaction volume on the L2

Thailand’s Gulf Energy Development Public Company Ltd. recently announced that it had made a significant investment in the US affiliate of the leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.
Gulf Invests in Binance US and BNB
According to a regulatory filing with the Thailand Stock Exchange today, the Thailand-based energy company revealed that it had invested in “Series Seed Preferred Stock” through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Gulf International Investments Limited. The assets are issued by BAM Trading Services Inc., the operator of Binance US.
In a separate regulatory filing, Gulf Energy also revealed that it had invested an undisclosed amount in BNB, the native cryptocurrency of the BNB Chain ecosystem, via a designated subsidiary it established for the purpose of investing

Polygon Network recently announced intentions to offset its carbon footprint this year. The blockchain project revealed that it had pledged $20 million toward its plans of becoming carbon neutral and climate effective.
As per the announcement, Polygon noted that it aims to implement a multilayered strategy targeted at creating a sustainable future for its ecosystem, the crypto industry, and the planet at large.
The Green Manifesto
Polygon also unveiled its “Green Manifesto: A Smart Contract with Planet Earth,” which emphasizes the need for environmentally sustainable practices to promote the Web3 ethos.
Hence to become carbon neutral, the project intends to track every NFT generated, token bridged, or DeFi trade made on its ecosystem and their environmental impacts

The crypto market has proven time and again that anyone who invests at the right time could become a millionaire with relatively small capital.
Aside from Bitcoin, which has gained over 5 billion percent in value since it started trading in July 2010, many other cryptocurrencies have turned average traders into millionaires within a few months.
One factor that reflects the upward momentum of digital assets is increased “hype” around a trend, and there are a lot of them in the crypto space. Over the years, the industry has moved from one trend to another, including ICOs, decentralized finance (DeFi), memecoins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and play-to-earn (P2E).
Interestingly, every new concept usually gives rise to a new set of crypto millionaires, with the more recent

WisdomTree, a New York-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) sponsor and asset management firm, announced this week the launch of three new crypto ETPs. They will track the performance of Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), and Polkadot (DOT).
WisdomTree Launches New Crypto ETPs
According to the official announcement, the new ETPs dubbed WisdomTree Solana (SOLW), WisdomTree Cardano (ADAW), and WisdomTree Polkadot (DOTW) will give investors exposure to the prices of the underlying crypto assets. In addition, the three ETPs have the potential to offer staking rewards to investors.
SOLW, ADAW, and DOTW are already trading on Börse Xetra in Germany and SIX in Switzerland. WisdomTree also plans to list the three ETPs on Euronext exchanges in Paris and  Amsterdam by the end of March 2022.