Hackers have stolen $196 million from crypto trading platform Bitmart, a security firm PeckShield Inc. said on Twitter on December 3, raising the issue of crypto frauds once again even as Bitcoin (BTC) recovered to $49,000 in the last 24 hours on December 6, after last week’s fall. Meanwhile, the new Covid variant namesake Omicron Coin (OMIC) was up 41.68 per cent in the last 24 hours.
Bitcoin (BTC) saw an increase of 0.01 per cent in the last 24 hours and was trading at $49,031.52 at 8 am, according to data from global crypto exchange coinmarketcap.com. Bitcoin’s dominance in the crypto market is currently 40.73 per cent with an increase of 0.35 per cent over the day.
“Bitcoin recovered to around $49,026.80, after dropping to $42,000 over the weekend. This decline was Bitcoin's biggest since the May sell-off, but unlike then, investors have bought up bitcoin quickly this time,” says Gaurav Dahake, CEO and founder of Bitbns, an Indian crypto exchange.
The second largest coin by market capitalisation, Ethereum (ETH) has shown a rise of 1 per cent in the last 24 hours and was trading at $4,160.98, while the third top coin by market cap Binance Coin (BNB) was still in red, with a fall of 2.31 per cent in the last 24 hours and was trading at $546.84 at 8 am. Tether (USDT), the fourth in the list by market cap, was trading at $1, witnessing a fall of 0.02 per cent. Like other coins, Solana (SOL) recovered from the huge fall and was trading at $193.21 with fall of 0.18 per cent in the last 24 hours and was at the fifth position in the coinmarketcap list.
Meme Coins
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s came out in support of Dogecoin (DOGE) again on Twitter. However, his remark “Dooooge” in reply to an article published on CoinDesk did not alter the price of Dogecoin majorly. It witnessed a fall of 2.01 per cent in the last 24 hours and was trading at $0.1717 at 8 am, according to coinmarketcap.com.
Rival Shiba Inu (SHIB) lost 1.44 per cent in the last 24 hours and was trading at $0.00003544 at 8 am. Meanwhile, Dogelon Mars (ELON) has fallen by 6.25 per cent in the last 24 hours and was trading at $0.000001049, while Samoyedcoin (SAMO) was trading at $0.04576 and recorded a fall of 21.51 per cent in the last 24 hours, according to coinmarketcap.com.
Crypto Market Scenario
The global crypto market cap is $2.27 trillion, registering a decrease of 0.97 per cent in the last 24 hours, while the total crypto market volume over the last 24 hours is $121.17 billion, down 40.18 per cent. The total volume in DeFi (Decentralised finance) is currently $17.79 billion, which is 14.68 per cent of the total crypto market 24-hour volume.
ALL BEST ICO (ALLBI) became the biggest gainer in the last 24 hours, recording a rise of 2215.48 per cent; it was trading at $0.03796 at 8 am. On the other hand, GMR Finance (GMR) recorded maximum loss in the last 24 hours, falling 97.88 per cent; it was trading at $0.000000003621.
Latest Updates
The latest centralised Bitmart hack is being called the most destructive to date. It lost $196 million in multiple cryptocurrencies, security firm PeckShield Inc said on December 3. One of Bitmart’s addresses currently shows steady outflows of entire token balances, some worth tens of millions of dollars, to an address currently labelled by Etherscan as the “Bitmart Hacker”, reported CoinDesk, a crypto exchange platform.
In a follow-up tweet, Peckshield estimated the losses to be $100 million in various cryptocurrencies on the Ethereum blockchain and $96 million on Binance Smart Chain.
According to Coindesk, hackers have been systematically using decentralised exchange (DEX) aggregator 1inch to swap the stolen assets for the cryptocurrency Ether (ETH) and using a secondary address to deposit ETH into privacy mixer Tornado Cash, making the hacked funds harder to track.
In India, after almost eight months of pay freeze by most high-street banks that continue to shun crypto investors and bourses, Kotak Bank will do business with WazirX, one of the country's largest crypto exchanges, according to a report in the Economic Times.
