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Bitcoin Halving: Prices expected to increase as cryptocurrency gets scarcer

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Bitcoin Halving: Prices expected to increase as cryptocurrency gets scarcer

Bitcoin halving occurs about once every four years, and is designed to reduce the rewards for miners. With the fourth halving, the block subsidy has decreased from 6.25 BTC to 3.12 BTC. The reduction directly impacts miner revenue.

The total supply of Bitcoins is capped at 21 million coins. (Image Credit: Bing Image Creator).

Key Highlights

  • A Bitcoin halving is a pivotal event that shapes the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
  • Less efficient miners may exit the network due to reduced benefits.
  • Only the most efficient ASIC machines can now mine profitably.

New Delhi: Bitcoin halving occurs about once every four years, driving prices up by reducing the rate at which new tokens enter circulation. This increases the scarcity of Bitcoins, and is expected to drive up the prices like the previous three halvings. The rewards for mining the flagship cryptocurrency has now reduced to 3.125 BTC from 6.25 BTC for every block mined. The reduction in rewards has a direct impact on the revenues of miners.

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The Bitcoin halving event occurred on 19 April, 2024, as miners rushed to extract the remaining blocks before the reduction in rewards. The community expected the halving to occur on 20 April, but the 840,000th block was mined a day earlier. The network is configured to halve every 210,000 blocks. There have been three previous halving events in 2012, 2016 and 2020, reducing the rewards from 50 to 25 to 12.5 to 6.25 BTC.

Only the most efficient miners will be profitable

The halving is expected to introduce significant changes to the crypto ecosystem. Only the most efficient Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) machines are expected to operate profitably going forward. Older and less efficient ASICs may be phased out from the market, with next generation ASICs expected to have specific breakeven power costs depending on the hashprice.

Miners are also looking at custom ASIC firmware such as BraiinsOS and LuxOS to increase the efficiency of hardware, that lower breakeven points for electricity costs. Less efficient miners are expected to exit the network, due to the impact on profitability. Miners will now be getting half the rewards for their efforts, going forward.

How the ecosystem reacted to previous halvings

Following the first halving in 2012, the network hash rate declined and the less profitable miners exited the network. In early 2013, Bitcoin saw its first bull run, with prices increasing to $1,000 from $13. Following the second halving in 2016, the prices initially plummeted to $670, but then rose again to $2,550 in 2017. At the time of the third halving in 2020, BTC prices were around $10,000, but increased to $62,000 a year later, in 2021. BTC prices are now around $65,000, and is expected to surge in about six months to a year.

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Crypto

North Korean hackers linked to hack of 4,500 bitcoins from Japanese crypto exchange – SiliconANGLE

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North Korean hackers linked to hack of 4,500 bitcoins from Japanese crypto exchange – SiliconANGLE

North Korean hackers linked to the infamous Lazarus hacking group have been identified as being behind the theft of more than 4,500 bitcoins from Japanese cryptocurrency exchange DMM Bitcoin earlier this year.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, in conjunction with the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center and National Police Agency of Japan, has revealed that hackers who go by the name of TraderTraitor, an arm of Lazarus, successfully stole the equivalent of $308 million from DMM in May and have detailed how the North Korean hackers did so.

The investigation into the hack found that in late March 2024, a North Korean cyber actor pretending to be a recruiter on LinkedIn contacted an employee at Ginco, a Japanese enterprise cryptocurrency wallet software company. The threat actor sent the target, who maintained access to Ginco’s wallet management system, a URL linked to a malicious Python script under the guise of a pre-employment test located on a GitHub page. The victim copied the Python code to their personal GitHub page and was subsequently compromised.

With the access gained, the TraderTraitor hackers sat patiently, waiting until May to exploit their access. To steal the bitcoin, the actors exploited session cookie information to impersonate the compromised employee and successfully gained access to Ginco’s unencrypted communications system. With this access, it’s believed that the hackers then manipulated a legitimate transaction request from a DMM employee, resulting in the theft of 4,502.9 bitcoin.

The stolen bitcoin was subsequently transferred to TraderTraitor-controlled wallets, which ultimately lead back to the North Korean government.

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“The FBI, National Police Agency of Japan and other U.S. government and international partners will continue to expose and combat North Korea’s use of illicit activities — including cybercrime and cryptocurrency theft — to generate revenue for the regime,” the FBI noted in a statement.

The involvement of both North Korea and an arm of Lazarus in the hack comes as no surprise, as the hack of DMM isn’t the first time Lazarus has targeted cryptocurrency exchanges.

In 2022, Lazarus was linked to the hack on the Ronin Network that led to the theft of $615 million in cryptocurrency, and more recently, in July, the group was linked to the theft of $234.9 million in cryptocurrency from India-based cryptocurrency exchange WazirX.

Image: SiliconANGLE/Ideogram

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Japan, US blame North Koreans for $300 million crypto theft

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Japan, US blame North Koreans for 0 million crypto theft

INQUIRER.net stock images

Tokyo, Japan — A North Korean hacking group stole cryptocurrency worth over $300 million from the Japan-based exchange DMM Bitcoin, according to Japanese police and the United States’ FBI.

The TraderTraitor group — believed to be part of Lazarus Group, which is allegedly linked to the Pyongyang authorities — carried out the heist, Japan’s National Police Agency said Tuesday.

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Lazarus Group gained notoriety a decade ago when it was accused of hacking into Sony Pictures as revenge for “The Interview,” a film that mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

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READ: Philippines ranks 2nd in cryptocurrency ownership globally — study

The FBI detailed “the theft of cryptocurrency worth $308 million US dollars from the Japan-based cryptocurrency company DMM by North Korean cyber actors” in a separate statement dated Monday.

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It described a “targeted social engineering” operation where a hacker pretended to be a recruiter on LinkedIn to contact an employee of a different crypto wallet software company.

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They sent the employee what appeared to be a pre-employment test, which actually contained a malicious line of code.

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That allowed the hacker to compromise their system and impersonate the employee, the FBI said.

“In late May 2024, the actors likely used this access to manipulate a legitimate transaction request by a DMM employee, resulting in the loss of 4,502.9 Bitcoin, worth $308 million at the time,” it said.

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“The FBI, National Police Agency of Japan, and other US government and international partners will continue to expose and combat North Korea’s use of illicit activities — including cybercrime and cryptocurrency theft — to generate revenue for the regime,” it said.

North Korea’s cyber-warfare program dates back to at least the mid-1990s.



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It has since grown to a 6,000-strong cyber-warfare unit known as Bureau 121 that operates from several countries, according to a 2020 US military report.

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North Korean hacker group identified in theft of DMM Bitcoin assets

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North Korean hacker group identified in theft of DMM Bitcoin assets

A North Korea-linked hacker group stole digital assets worth 48.2 billion yen ($307 million) from Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange DMM Bitcoin Co. in May, Japanese police said Tuesday.

The hacker group was identified by the police as TraderTraitor following an investigation conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

DMM Bitcoin said earlier this month it will go out of business after suspending some of its services following the detection of the unauthorized leakage of funds on May 31.

Photo illustration shows a visual representation of the digital cryptocurrency Bitcoin. (Getty/Kyodo)

The police tracked the flow of stolen bitcoin to an account managed by the group, which is suspected to be linked to the Lazarus hacking group allegedly sponsored by the North Korean government.

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The investigation found that an employee at a company that manages DMM Bitcoin’s cryptocurrency accounts was contacted via the LinkedIn social network by a person purporting to be a headhunter.

The perpetrator then breached the wallet management system by planting malware and falsified transaction amounts as well as the destinations of remittances, the police said.

In September, Japan’s Financial Services Agency ordered the exchange to improve operations, saying its risk management structure was inadequate.

No customers suffered financial damage as the exchange secured 55 billion yen from a group firm to cover the lost assets.

The police, the FBI, and other U.S. government and international partners will “continue to expose and combat North Korea’s use of illicit activities,” including cybercrime and cryptocurrency theft, to generate revenue for the regime, they said in a statement.

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Related coverage:

Japanese publisher paid $3 million to hacker group after cyberattack

Japan’s DMM Bitcoin to end business after losing 48 bil. yen in leak

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