Hacker Attacks, Gets Tracked Down Super Fast

GM Readers!📪 It's BitDegree Insider, and you know what day it is.

⭐️Today's selection:

• 🕵️‍♀️New Hack + Investigation
• 🔶Binance's $400M Problems
• 🧩️Answer To Yesterday's Puzzle
• 👌Selected Meme of The Day
• 📰Bite-Sized News

HACKER VS CRYPTO SLEUTH

There are villains... and there are heroes. Today's story has both.

So, Platypus, a DeFi protocol, recently got hacked.

The Platypus DeFi protocol runs on the the AVALANCHE network, but despite its robust infrastructure... Hackers managed to break in using a flash credit method.

The damage to the platform amounted to $8.5 million. In the wake of these events, the Platypus Stablecoin (USP) "sank" by more than 52%, losing its dollar peg.

It even reached its all-time low of $0.475493 for a moment.

CertiK (a DeFi audit firm) analysts were the first to notice the suspicious activity. They also provided an account of the likely attacker.

The hack was later confirmed by the Platypus team. The perpetrator took advantage of a vulnerability in USP's solvency checking mechanism in the collateral contract.

But here's the interesting part.

a crypto sleuth (a cool way of describing a web3 analyst & detective) that goes under an alias of 'ZachXBT' claims to have identified the possible hacker.

The sleuth even found the alleged attacker on Twitter and slid into their DMs. Right after that the accused hacker deleted their Twitter account.

'I've traced addresses back to your account from the @Platypusdefi exploit and I am in touch with their team and exchanges. We'd like to negotiate returning of the funds before we engage with law enforcement,' the sleuth tweeted.

At this moment, the USP stablecoin is heading back to its initial $1 value. Nevertheless, the damage is done, and people's trust in the project will never be the same.

What do you think? In case the crypto sleuth is right, and he managed to trace down the possible perpetrator so quickly... Will he get scared and return the funds?

TL;DR: The Platypus DeFi protocol got hacked for $8.5 million. Yet one online crypto sleuth managed to trace down who the attacker actually is. This could result in the funds being returned, because the hacker must not have expected to be found so quickly.

BINANCE AND THEIR $400M PROBLEMS

Reuters love to write exposés about cryptocurrency exchange Binance and its head, Changpeng Zhao.

Today they have issued a new investigation.

According to it, Binance transferred over $400 million from Binance US accounts to Merit Peak Ltd, a trading firm founded by Changpeng Zhao.

These transfers began in late 2020 and ended in 2021, when Merit Peak ceased operations.

The authors of the report could not determine where did this money come from. It was not confirme that this was the US clients' money.

Nor did they find out the reason for the transfers.

This creates yet another blow to the reputation of Binance.US, which is currently going through difficult times.

Recall that the other day the US regulator banned Paxos, the issuer of BUSD, from actually issuing the coin.

This means that the platform will have to rebuild many trading products. Not to mention the fact that they will lose profits due to the fall in popularity of the stablecoin.

Binance US has declared that Reuters' information is "outdated".

Apparently, Binance has found a suitable alternative to BUSD for trading pairs.

Yesterday, the exchange minted $50 million worth of TUSD Stablecoin.

This, in turn, triggered a jump in the value of the platform's native token TRU. In the last 24 hours alone, it has increased in value by 90%.

Interestingly, since September, TUSD, along with USDT and USDC, was automatically converted to BUSD on the Binance platform.

And today... everything has changed. The world keeps turning, the crypto world keeps surprising.

TL;DR: Reuters launched a new investigation into Binance. They found out that Binance had been gradually transferring $400m from Binance US to Merit Peak Ltd, a trading firm founded by CZ. Investigation tried finding out whether this was Binance US customers' money, but it was not confirmed.

ANSWER TO YESTERDAY'S PUZZLE

Yesterday we asked you this:'How do you call a market situation when an asset trades at price below its market/real value?'

Once again, we had yet another opportunity to confirm the obvious fact that our readers are smart (and beautiful, and kind, and so nice).

The correct answer received the most votes.

And the correct answer is....

👏👏👏 oversold 👏👏👏

SELECTED MEME OF THE DAY

BITE-SIZED NEWS

• California Financial Regulator Introduces Crypto Scam Tracker. Like calorie intake tracker. But for crypto. Scams.
• US SEC Files a Lawsuit Against Terraform Labs and its Co-Founder Do Kwon. Uhmm... Right about time?..
• Crypto Exchanges Binance and Huobi Freeze $1.4M in Crypto Tied to Lazarus Group. Makes you wonder how do they manage to hide their tracks for so long.