Feb 03, 2023
North Korea Steals $1.65B in DeFi Funds, Huobi Denies Data Sharing
Huawei Files Trademarks for its NFT Series
Chinese telecom giant Huawei has recently filed for eight trademarks related to its Huawei “YunYunBao” nonfungible tokens (NFT) series. The trademarks include digital collectibles in the scientific instruments, furniture, education, jewelry, advertising, and telecom sectors. Huawei unveiled its YunYunBao NFTs last April, featuring characters inspired by its namesake cloud service. The NFTs are minted on the proprietary Huawei Petal Chain, which the telecom giant claims has over 1,000 nodes and can handle over 50,000 transactions per second.
Toyota Sponsors Blockchain Hackathon
Japanese blockchain Astar Network recently announced that it had received a sponsorship from Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota for its Web3 hackathon. The hackathon will take place from Feb. 14 to March 25, with over $100,000 in prizes to be distributed to projects that develop “intra-company DAO [Decentralized Autonomous Organization] support tools for this hackathon which Toyota employees may actually use in the future.” According to Sota Watanabe, the founder of Astar Network, “Toyota is the largest company in Japan and one of the world’s leading international companies. We are very excited to be hosting the Web3 Hackathon on Astar with Toyota. During the event, we aim to develop the first PoC DAO tool for Toyota’s employees.”
North Korean Hackers Steal $1.65 Billion
According to blockchain forensic analytics firm Chainalysis, North Korean hackers have stolen an estimated $1.65 billion out of the $3.8 billion funds siphoned from decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols in 2022. This is a sharp rise from the $299.5 million stolen in 2020 and $428.8 million in 2021. The firm also warned that North Korean hackers have increasingly turned to digital asset mixers, such as Sinbad, to launder stolen funds.
No Binance Metaverse for Now
In an ask-me-anything session on Jan. 14, Changpeng Zhao, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, said that the firm “is more open to just investing in other virtual reality or metaverse games,” as the firm is not a game-builder and doesn’t have a game building team. Instead, Zhao said that Binance will focus its “next big product” on releasing multiple proofs-of-reserves and proofs-of-solvencies to increase its transparency.
Huobi Denies Data Sharing Allegations
Digital asset entrepreneur Justin Sun has responded to allegations that his exchange Huobi provided client information to Chinese tax authorities. The TRON founder tweeted that Huobi “doesn’t share any client information to tax authorities unless it follows international judicial assistance procedure.”
Huobi Founder’s New Ventures
After selling his entire stake in Huobi to Sun’s About Capital last October, Chinese businessman Lin Li has dedicated his time to managing Hong Kong blockchain investment holdings firm New Huo Technology. On Jan. 30, New Huo launched a staking technical support service, dubbed “Sinohope Staking,” that will first serve the Cosmos community before expanding into Ethereum, EOS and ChainLink. The service will provide “multi-node deployment, real-time monitoring of node operation process, 7*24h online support, 3-layer wallet structure and multiple signature technologies” for users interested in staking their assets on public blockchains.
Bitzlato Allegedly Defiant Despite Sanctions
The co-founder of Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato says the platform will reopen after being shut down by United States authorities last month. In a Jan. 31 YouTube interview, Russian national Anton Shurenko said that the exchange would open later at an unspecified time and claimed up to 50% of funds held in seized hot wallets would be available for withdrawal at that time. On Jan. 18, Bitzlato was shut down after an investigation by law enforcement officials revealed that the exchange imposed lax Know Your Customer rules and allegedly laundered over $700 million worth of illicit funds via crypto-fiat transactions. Despite its notoriety, many users in the crypto community say they’ve never heard of Bitzlato before the incident.
The web3 space is rapidly growing, with the introduction of NFTs, DeFi protocols, and blockchain hackathons. Chinese telecom giant Huawei has recently filed for eight trademarks related to its Huawei “YunYunBao” nonfungible tokens (NFT) series. Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota is sponsoring a Web3 hackathon with Astar Network, with over $100,000 in prizes to be distributed to projects that develop “intra-company DAO [Decentralized Autonomous Organization] support tools for this hackathon which Toyota employees may actually use in the future.”
North Korean hackers have been actively stealing funds from DeFi protocols, with Chainalysis reporting that North Korean-related entities have stolen $1.65 billion out of the $3.8 billion funds siphoned from DeFi protocols in 2022. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has said that the firm “is more open to just investing in other virtual reality or metaverse games,” as the firm is not a game-builder and doesn’t have a game building team.
Meanwhile, digital asset entrepreneur Justin Sun has responded to allegations that his exchange Huobi provided client information to Chinese tax authorities. Sun tweeted that Huobi “doesn’t share any client information to tax authorities unless it follows international judicial assistance procedure.” Chinese businessman Lin Li, who sold his entire stake in Huobi to Sun’s About Capital last October, has dedicated his time to managing Hong Kong blockchain investment holdings firm New Huo Technology. New Huo launched a staking technical support service, dubbed “Sinohope Staking,” that will first serve the Cosmos community before expanding into Ethereum, EOS and ChainLink.
Finally, the co-founder of Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato
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