Weekly Recap: CZ Hopes to Help Musk Bring Twitter into Web3
Binance Backs Elon Musk’s Twitter Acquisition
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao intends to help Twitter make Web3 a part of its future. CZ revealed this in an interview on Monday after Binance supported Musk’s takeover of the social media platform with a $500M investment. Zhao noted the exchange hopes to see crypto with a “seat at the table” in terms of free speech.
Notably, Binance is already working to set up a team of crypto specialists to assist Twitter with blockchain-related developments. Indeed, the team will examine the best path to resolving issues on the platform using blockchain technology. They will also provide aid as Musk cracks down on bot and spam accounts, his biggest bone to pick on the platform.
CZ continued to emphasize during the interview his core reason for backing the Musk acquisition. According to him, Twitter is a global platform that supports free speech and allows for strong entrepreneurship. Zhao himself also uses the platform “very heavily”
MiCA Bill Warns Crypto Influencers of Possible Market Manipulation Charges
The European Union’s crypto regulation policy, the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) bill, contains a clause directed at crypto influencers. Stablecoin firm Circle’s EU director of strategy and policy, Patrick Hansen has been following the bill’s progress so far. Upon taking a closer look at it, he discovered a section addressing public comments without disclosure, which he tweeted about on Tuesday.
“Crypto influencers beware: Commenting on crypto assets in (social) media without disclosure and profiting from the effects of that will be considered market manipulation in the EU once MiCA is in force. @zachxbt,” his tweet stated.
Indeed, talking about crypto-assets after taking positions on them and not telling people about the conflict of interest could be seen as market manipulation. The crypto community has shown quite some interest in the clause. A post on Reddit’s crypto subreddit points to support from the community, the top comment on the thread noted;
“Shilling certain projects and never taking responsibility for the losses they inflict upon people. It's about time those influencers get what they deserve.”
Solend Suffers $1.26M Market Manipulation Exploit
Solana-based lending protocol fell victim to a market manipulation attack that resulted in losses of $1.26M. Crypto security firm PeckShield reported that the attack took place on Wednesday and targeted three lending pools.
“An oracle attack on USDH affecting the Stable, Coin98, and Kamino isolated pools was detected, resulting in $1.26M in bad debt,” Solend tweeted after spotting the attack.
The team explained in their report that the attacker leveraged an opening in the platform’s price-data oracle. Following the breach the team shut down the pools the attacker was able to access. However, Solend claims that all other lending pools remain safe.
Musk May Introduce Doge Payments on Twitter
Since completing his Twitter purchase, Tesla founder now “Chief Twit” Elon Musk initiated several developments on the platform. One of Musk’s first moves was to lay off several executives from the social media company. Later on, he announced Twitter verification would be incorporated into the platform’s premium subscription offering Twitter Blue.
Initial reports of the development suggested that Musk would raise the fee from $4.99 to $19.99, 4 times the original cost. However, Musk later clarified that the new charge will be $7.99. On Thursday, members of the crypto community probed into whether Dogecoin would be integrated into the payment system.
Musk in typical fashion did not give a direct response but shared a cryptic emoji instead.
Instagram Unveils New NFT Marketplace
In a release on Thursday, Instagram parent company Meta revealed that users will soon be able to mint digital tokens on the social media platform. According to the publication, creators will be able to make virtual collectibles on Instagram and conduct sales both on and off the platform.
_“They’ll have an end-to-end toolkit — from creation (starting on the Polygon blockchain) and showcasing, to selling,” _the release stated.
The company stated that the features are currently undergoing trials within a small group of creators based in the US. Of course, Meta plans to introduce the new NFT marketplace across more countries later on.
The release also noted that Instagram is adding the Solana blockchain and Phantom wallet to the blockchains and wallets they already support. Additionally, creators can now display video non-fungible tokens on the social media platform. Instagram has also made it possible for users to access details such as collection names and descriptions. However, this last feature is only available for projects “where the metadata has been enriched by OpenSea.”
Monkey Drainer Carts Off Over $800k in NFTs
Infamous phishing scammer Monkey Drainer struck again on Friday, this time carting off assets worth $800k. The exploit is the second Monkey Drainer has pulled off in two weeks.
Self-acclaimed blockchain sleuth ZachXBT reported the attack in a tweet. The report stated that the hacker had stolen seven Crypto Punk and twenty Otherside non-fungible tokens. In his tweet, the sleuth placed the value of the loot at about $520 ETH, nearly 850,000 USD.
Crypto security company PeckShield also made a Twitter post calling attention to the theft. According to the PeckShield report, the scammer ran the stolen assets through the privacy protocol Tornado Cash.
The last few weeks have seen the unnamed scammer behind the Monkey Drainer wallet pull off a series of exploits. Roughly one week ago, the fraudster was able to drain various crypto wallets of up to 700 ETH ($1 million). ZachXBT reported that they had exceeded 7300 transactions from the drainer wallet since the scamming operation commenced a few months ago.
