The month of October 2022 is in the books, and plenty of things happened in the crypto world. Of course, only some developments have been beneficial, but there is some renewed market momentum to consider. Here are the significant events that caught Cointraffic’s attention this past month.
Over 12.000 Crypto Tokens have all but stalled since January.
The year 2022 has been rather brutal for all cryptocurrencies. This is an alarming trend in an industry with over 12,000 currencies, tokens, and assets. The vast majority of these coins have seen their daily trading volume decrease. If anything, the momentum and volume have stalled for all currencies not considered "top crypto assets."
The $100 Million Binance Coin Theft
There was some initial confusion regarding the theft of $100 million in Binance Coin, the native currency of the Binance exchange. However, it was not the platform itself that got hacked or exploited. Instead, a cross-chain bridge attack against BSC Token Hub yielded the issuance of "extra" Binance Coins. As a result, all network validators suspended BSC to address the issue.
Some of the stolen funds were frozen almost immediately, but some of the money was still converted. It remains unclear who is behind the attack and where some of the money ended up. The issue did not put customer funds at risk, and no users lost value in the process.
Higher Bitcoin Energy Consumption
The Bitcoin Mining Council issued a recent report indicating things are heating up in the mining world. More specifically, the network hash rate has grown by 73% during Q3 2022. An impressive sign of support for the leading crypto network. Interestingly, the energy consumption to bring that extra hardware online yielded a 41% increase. Bitcoin has received much attention for its environmental impact, even if most research is flawed or biassed.
Thanks to the Bitcoin mining Council, the focus has shifted to renewable energy sources. As a result, green power represents nearly 68% of all BMC mining activity and 58.4% of all bitcoin mining operations globally. That is an immediate 3% increase year-over-year.
Mango Markets Attacker Steals $114 million and reveals himself
The culprit behind the attack on the DeFi platform Mango markets identified themselves. Avraham Eisenberg claimed responsibility for the attack in late October 2022. Eisenberg is too happy to brag even though his Tweets can get him into legal trouble. Many feel he should be imprisoned, whereas others think Eisenberg deserves praise. Stealing $114 million from Mango Markets got him a lot of attention, and he proposed to keep $47 million - and immunity - for giving back the rest.
In a Twitter thread, he explained a new "attack" he pulled off - rug-pulling a new meme coin called Mango Inu - which quickly collected $250,000 from investors. However, Eisenberg alleged he only made $100,000 due to bots frontrunning the liquidity pull. It remains unclear how long this individual can pull off these stunts and share them publicly as if it is the most normal thing to do.
Tether Goes Peer-to-peer Credit
The company behind the largest stablecoin in the cryptocurrency space made an intriguing announcement. Its Pear Credit solution is a P2P credit system letting issuers create peer-to-peer credit tokens. It will not utilize blockchain but remains cheaper than traditional solutions for credit issuers. Tether wants to make inroads in the reward points space, although other use cases may apply.
Another intriguing development is the role of Mastercard in crypto land. The payment giant will "bridge" Paxos and banks to make crypto trading accessible to financial institution clients. Slowly but surely, crypto continues to make mainstream inroads, and the momentum seems unstoppable.
Sub-Saharan Africa Likes Crypto
The concept of cryptocurrency benefits those with limited or no access to financial products and services. African countries come to mind almost immediately. Small retail payments have taken root in Sub-Saharan Africa, per recent findings by Chainalysis. The region is also home to the most P2P transactions globally, surpassing Central and Southern Asia.
Beyond retail transactions, crypto assets are also used for remittances and commercial transfers. Unfortunately, Fiat currencies in Sub-Saharan Africa continue to lose value, with Kenya and Nigeria serving as good examples. Bitcoin and similar assets provide a much-needed alternative.