The biggest DeFi got hacked, and a day earlier Poloniex was fined $10 million

Poloniex fined $10 million

Crypto platform Poloniex will have to pay a fine of $10 million. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concluded that illegal trading operations were carried out on the exchange with the participation of unregistered securities in the form of crypto assets.

According to the SEC, in 2017 Poloniex concluded that the company should be more “aggressive” in promoting digital currencies in order to increase its market share. The next year, the startup team decided that the continuation of operations involving tokens, which the regulator can classify as securities, is a “medium risk” in terms of revenue growth.

“Poloniex chose increased profits over compliance with the federal securities laws by including digital asset securities on its unregistered exchange. Poloniex attempted to circumvent the SEC’s regulatory regime, which applies to any marketplace for bringing together buyers and sellers of securities regardless of the applied technology,” said Kristina Littman, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Cyber Unit.

The exchange itself did not recognize or refute the conclusions of the regulator, but agreed to pay $10.3 million as part of the settlement agreement:

• illegally obtained income in the amount of $8,484.313, $ 403,995 in the form of interest;
• a fine of $1.5 million.

Venture investors are increasingly interested in cryptocurrencies

Venture investments in the crypto industry for the first half of 2021 are twice as high as for the entire time before. At the same time, analysts note that digital assets are characterized by greater volatility today than before.

However, experts are confident that despite the fall in the cryptocurrency market capitalization from $2.5 trillion to $1.18 trillion, this is a rapidly developing industry. Indeed, in the first six months of 2021 alone, venture capital funds invested $ 17 billion in various projects related to digital currencies.

Interestingly, CoinShares has published a new weekly report, which states that large investors withdrew $26 million from crypto funds between August 2 and 8. Experts believe that the recovery of the digital asset market has not yet attracted new investment in funds.

Blockchain Australia: “Cryptocurrencies can’t be compared to the Wild West”

The industry organization Blockchain Australia is confident that the Australian authorities are not willing to engage in the development of regulations regarding the production of digital currencies. The organization’s CEO, Steve Wallas, believes that local officials find it more convenient to consider the crypto industry “a breeding ground for fraudsters and malefactors.”

“The country lags far behind in regulating cryptocurrencies due to over-reliance on disparaging accounts of the industry as the Wild West. We strongly disagree with these stereotypes,” Wallas said.

The crypto enthusiast noted that since the ICO “boom” a few years ago, the Australian authorities have chosen to take a passive position. According to Wallas, the modern crypto industry has little to do with the early mass popularity of digital currencies.

Biggest DeFi Hack: O3Swap Lost Over $600 Million

The O3Swap cross-chain protocol and Poly Network have been hacked. Launched by the development team of the Chinese public network NEO, O3swap focuses on transferring assets between different blockchains and currently supports the Etherum, BSC, Heco and NEO networks.

In their Twitter account, Poly Network reported that they were attacked, and a total of more than $610 million was withdrawn to 3 addresses.

- BSC — $251 million (https://bscscan.com/address/0x0d6e286a7cfd25e0c01fee9 ..)

- Polygon — $85 million (https://polygonscan.com/address/0x5dc3603c9d42ff18415 ..)

- ETH — $274 million (https://etherscan.io/address/0xC8a65Fadf0e0dDAf421F28 ..)

“O3 Swap cross-chain function is currently suspended due to the Poly Network was hacked. We are in contact with the team. Please be patient to back to full functionality.

The non-cross-chain function is available and can be used normally,” the O3Swap team commented.

We would like to remind our readers that another DeFi protocol was hacked last week. Then the hackers managed to hack Popsicle Finance and withdraw about $25 million from it. Against this background, the 3Swap hack looks more serious and, moreover, could become the largest hacker attack among DeFi projects in the entire history of their existence.