Liquid crypto exchange got hacked, and Facebook announces readiness to launch Novi crypto wallet

Criminals stole more than $80 million from the users of the Liquid crypto exchange

Japanese crypto platform Liquid has been hacked. According to the company’s own data, criminals hacked hot wallets and stole digital digital assets worth more than $80 million.

“We are currently studying the situation and will provide regular updates. In the meantime, deposits and withdrawals will be suspended,” the Liquid team wrote.

The company did not specify the volume of stolen cryptocoins, however, it disclosed information about the addresses associated with it. More than 107 bitcoins, about 11 million Ripple and about 9 million TRX were sent to them.

The ETH wallet received almost 15,000 Ethereum. In addition, hackers stole ERC-20 tokens worth more than $24 million.

Facebook announces readiness to launch Novi digital wallet

The head of Facebook Financial, David Marcus, announced the readiness to launch the Novi digital wallet. Also, the top manager of the company noted the shortcomings of the American financial infrastructure.

According to him, about 1.7 billion people around the world cannot use banking services. This includes 62 million US residents “stuck in the banknote economy.”

“Here at home in America, however, our payments infrastructure is arguably the worst of any developed country in the world, and increasingly falling behind, while China is moving with determination and haste to build an infrastructure that will make the digital yuan a challenger to the dollar as the world’s reserve currency,” wrote the head of the payment divisions of Facebook.

Markus is confident that with the help of a payment network integrated with stablecoins, transactions with cryptocurrencies will be faster and cheaper.

US and China lost leadership in digital asset proliferation

According to research by Chainalysis, the cryptoasset penetration index increased by almost 900% in the past year. At the same time, the United States and China, once leading in the popularization of digital currencies, have lost their positions.

The top 5 includes Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Ukraine and Kenya. In total, the study covered 154 countries.

According to analysts, a key prerequisite for the spread of cryptoassets in developing countries was the desire to protect their savings from the devaluation of national currencies, as well as the spread of remittances and active business. In developed countries, institutional investment turned out to be the main driver.