Individual Creates a private DEX to hunt zkSync airdrops with 22,000 wallets
An individual has created nearly 22,000 wallets on Zksync, and continued to create his own token called Gemstone ($GEM) and a DEX. Then, all 22,000 wallets were whitelisted, allowing the individual to claim all the self-deployed tokens. Substantial liquidity, amounting to over 80 ETH, was added to the $GEM tokens within his DEX contract. This boosted the token’s value.
The individual proceeded to trade $GEM tokens claimed from these wallets against ETH, earning a profit ranging from 0.6 to 0.7 ETH in value. This process was executed through a bot, not manually. Its aim is to create many transactions with large enough volume, thereby hunting Zksync airdrops.
The result is quite impressive as each wallet performed 10 transactions, with a total transaction value of up to $10,000 and transaction fees of only about $1.8 to $2.2.
zkSync has garnered significant support and funding from major players in the cryptocurrency industry, making it an appealing target for airdrop hunters and opportunistic actors. While the identity of the individual behind the operation remains a mystery, the incident serves as a reminder that transparency and security are paramount in decentralized ecosystems like zkSync.
Coinbase and OKX delisted 73 spot trading pairs
With the goal of strengthening market health and focusing on liquidity, Coinbase delisted 41 non-USD trading pairs on Coinbase Exchange, Advanced Trade and Coinbase Prime on Sept 13. OKX also delisted some trading pairs that do not meet their listing criteria.
Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin’s X account was hacked
The hack was first noticed on Saturday last week when a post appeared on Buterin’s post announcing the launch of a set of commemorative NFTs from software provider Consensys. This malicious link – which could have been shown to many of his 4.9 million followers – prompted victims to connect their wallets to mint the NFT, but in reality, it simply created a vacuum for the hacker to make off with their funds.
On Crypto Twitter, users were quick to raise the alarm about the fake link, but the first apparent acknowledgment that Buterin was hacked came from his father, Dmitriy “Dima” Buterin.
The post has since been deleted, but the damage was done, as a number of victims reported losing access to funds from their wallets. Within the hour, the hacker appeared to make off with more than $147,000, but that quickly increased to $691,000, according to blockchain investigator @ZachXBT.
Trader pays over $500,000 in fees for a single transaction
An unknown user who spent $510,000 on a Bitcoin transaction, making it the transaction with the highest fee paid in USD in history. The founder Chun said they will put this fee on hold and if nobody comes to claim it after 3 days, these BCT will be redistributed to miners.
Then, Paxos confirmed it’s responsible for paying a $500K Bitcoin transaction fee. In its statement, Paxos claimed that it had contacted the mining company that confirmed the transaction and is attempting to recover the lost funds.
Crypto investor threatens lawsuit over lost 8,000 Bitcoin
James Howells, a Welsh Bitcoin investor, is reportedly threatening to sue the Newport City Council over the lost Bitcoin.
Previously in 2013, Howells accidentally lost 8,000 Bitcoin (worth $207 million at current prices) after throwing the hard drive into the trash. He tried to dig up the landfill and search for his bitcoin. Newport City Council also said no to James Howells’ request to dig up the landfill, citing environmental concerns and negative impacts on the surrounding area. However, Howells is preparing to sue the council and stop them from carrying out other works on the site.
Howells seeks to win $557 million in legal fees that could cause Newport City Council to go bankrupt.
Polygon proposes to replace MATIC with POL token
A group of Polygon founders and researchers proposed a token upgrade that would replace the network’s MATIC token with POL in a move that lets POL function as a single token for all Polygon-based networks. These networks include the main Polygon blockchain, the Polygon zkEVM network, and various supernets – application-specific blockchains that run atop the main Polygon network.
If the proposal is accepted, network validators will be able to support the operation of multiple chains using a single token.
ARB token drops sharply due to sell-off pressure from crypto whales
ARB has dropped sharply, losing more than 20% of its value within 3 days. The reason is that many large investors, known as crypto whales, sold ARB even with significant losses.
A whale wallet with the address 0xe97 deposited 3.8 million ARB worth $3.26 million to Binance on Sep 11. Also on September 11, another wallet with the address 0xDce or vladilena2.eth transferred 3.64 million ARB tokens (worth about $2.87 million) to Binance. It is estimated that 0xDce lost approximately $300,000.
Another whale with wallet address 0x695 withdrew ARB from Binance in July 2023, then deposited 7 million ARB tokens into Aave to borrow USDC.
Besides the crypto whales above, there were 7 other whale wallet addresses that sold ARB on September 12. According to Lookonchain, these 7 wallets pushed a total of 20.41 million ARB tokens onto the market, with a total value of $16.05 million. They suffered a loss of $8.15 million.
Binance airdrops $3 million in BNB to Moroccan earthquake victims
Binance Charity announced a $3 million airdrop in Binance Coin (BNB) to assist victims of the recent earthquake in Morocco. It aims to provide immediate financial relief to affected residents, leveraging blockchain technology for rapid and transparent aid distribution.
Binance said it will identify users in the region using a proof-of-address protocol completed before the disaster. Users in the Marrakech-Safi province, the most affected region, will receive $100 worth of BNB directly to their Binance accounts. For Moroccan users outside of the Marrakech-Safi area, Binance plans to airdrop $10 in BNB each.
CoinEx was attacked
After several cybersecurity firms raised the alarm on Twitter X, Coinex said it had “detected anomalous withdrawals from several hot wallet addresses used to store CoinEx’s exchange assets”. Initial alerts indicated that the losses could amount to $27 million in Ethereum (ETH), Tron (TRON), and Polygon (MATIC). Crypto exchange CoinEx has suspended withdrawals from its platform to avoid further losses.
FTX gets permission to sell $3.4B crypto holdings
A judge in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware has ruled that FTX – the exchange went bankrupt in Nov 2022 – can sell its crypto holdings to pay back creditors.
FTX submitted a proposal to the court at the end of August, requesting permission to sell its crypto assets in order to compensate users as well as limit the impact of crypto market fluctuations. The exchange is holding $3.4 billion in cryptocurrencies with high liquidity like Solana (SOL), Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Aptos (APT), Tether (USDT ), XRP, etc.
Huobi rebrands to HTX
Huobi exchange announced that they will officially change their name from “Huobi” to “HTX” and it will be their new official global brand. The project has changed their name on social networks, including Twitter and Telegram.
Binance.US CEO exits, a lot of employees laid off
Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder has left the crypto exchange as roughly a third of its workforce has also been laid off. Brian Shroder previously worked at Uber and then joined Binance.US in 2021. Chief Legal Officer Norman Reed will take over Binance.US as its interim CEO.
Remitano exchange hacked for $2.7M
Crypto exchange Remitano experienced large withdrawals under suspicious circumstances on Sept. 14, which the team later confirmed was a hack. A total of $2.7 million worth of crypto was withdrawn through the attack. Tether froze one address the attacker allegedly used, potentially saving $1.4 million worth of customers’ crypto.
Billionaire Mark Cuban loses $870,000 in crypto scam
Billionaire investor and crypto enthusiast Mark Cuban has confirmed that one of his wallets was hacked. The transferred funds included stETH, USDT, USDC, ENS, MATIC, RARE and many other cryptocurrencies on various blockchains, with a total value of approximately $870,000. After this incident, Cuban decided to transfer all of his remaining assets to the Coinbase exchange to increase security.