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Bitcoin miners selling cryptocurrency may keep pressuring price: JPMorgan

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Bitcoin miners selling cryptocurrency may keep pressuring price: JPMorgan

Bitcoin miners needing to promote might weigh on the token’s value for a while, in line with JPMorgan Chase & Co. Bitcoin miners have been compelled to faucet into their cryptocurrency stashes as a plunge in costs, rising power prices and elevated competitors chunk into profitability.

The variety of cash miners are sending to crypto exchanges has been steadily climbing since June 7, researchers at MacroHive famous, in an indication that “miners have been more and more liquidating their cash on exchanges.” A number of publicly listed bitcoin miners collectively offered greater than 100% of their complete output in Could as the worth of bitcoin tumbled 45%, an evaluation by Arcane Analysis.

Public-listed miners, which account for about 20% of the overall, have already reported Bitcoin gross sales in Could and June to extend liquidity, meet prices and presumably deleverage, JPMorgan strategists mentioned in a observe. 

Privately-held miners could have offered a bigger share of their block rewards from mining exercise to satisfy ongoing prices and might be much less levered given their extra restricted entry to capital markets, they mentioned.

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“Offloading of Bitcoins by miners, so as to meet ongoing prices or to delever, might proceed into Q3 if their profitability fails to enhance,” the strategists wrote. That offloading “has possible already weighed on costs in Could and June, although there’s a threat that this strain might proceed.”

Cryptocurrencies have suffered this yr amid Federal Reserve fee hikes and stubbornly excessive inflation. The collapse of the Terra/Luna ecosystem and continued concern about hedge fund Three Arrows Capital Ltd. have additional rattled buyers.

One factor that might mitigate value pressures, in line with JPMorgan, is a drop in the price of manufacturing from a variety of round $18,000 to $20,000 earlier within the yr, to this month settling round $15,000. That appears to be associated to an enchancment within the implied power effectivity of mining {hardware}, and will cushion profitability.

Bitcoin miners, who run networks of computer systems to earn tokens by validating transactions on the blockchain, are usually staunch crypto “HODLers” and collectively personal round 800,000 bitcoins, in line with CoinMetrics information.

The crypto mining house quickly expanded in 2021 as bitcoin greater than quadrupled in worth, however this development has additional pressured margins as the method is designed to develop tougher because the variety of miners will increase.

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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

Shiba Inu of “doge” meme fame leaves enduring legacy, online and off


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