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🕵️ How Lazarus Group laundered $200M

Between 2020 and 2023, the Lazarus hacker group conducted a "massive operation" to launder funds stolen by over 25 exploits. Their actions resulted in huge amounts of dollars being stolen, and the laundering process became one of the most sophisticated schemes in the crypto world.

Lazarus used mixers to shuffle transactions and cover their tracks. The funds were then transferred to centralized exchanges to exchange crypto for fiat. Hackers also actively used P2P marketplaces such as Noones and Paxful to move funds from crypto to fiat. These marketplaces provide more flexible terms for conversion, which made them a convenient exit point for Lazarus.

In November 2023, $374k in USDT was frozen. Later, additional funds were blocked on centralized exchanges. By the end of 2023, 4 stablecoin issuers (Paxos, Tether, Techteryx, and Circle) had already frozen about $4.96M at two addresses linked to Lazarus.

The asset freeze is ongoing - approximately $1.65mn has been blocked in multiple transactions so far. The Lazarus Group attacks have affected vast number of users worldwide, and the number of victims is likely to grow as the Lazarus Group continues to be active. Funds tracing work was conducted on multiple blockchains to identify key transactions. Members from MetaMask and Symbiotic played an important role in the investigation.

🔻 88% of tokens depreciate within 15 days after airdrop

KeyRock experts analyzed 62 airdrops held on six blockchains during 2024. According to the results, 88.7% of the tokens that participated in the study showed a significant price drop within 90 days after the airdrop.

Ethereum and Solana stand out among the rest — 14.8% and 25% of airdrops that took place in these blockchains have maintained or increased their value three months after the distribution. Other networks, including BNB, Starknet, Arbitrum, Merlin, Blast, Mode, and ZkSync, did not have a single successful token distribution in 2024.

KeyRock experts have divided airdrops into small (when the community is assigned less than 5% of the total token issue), medium (from 5% to 10% of the token issue), and large (more than 10% of the token issue). In the short term, small airdrops often show better results. This is probably due to low sales pressure at the time of launch. However, the success of such projects is usually short-lived. As a rule, their tokens drop within three months.

They also named Drift's airdrop as the best in 2024, and the worst — ZkLend.

🐂 Bull market for the next 3 months?

Every time BTC closed September in the black, the crypto market saw growth for the next 3 months. This analysis was published by Ali Martinez. Well, let's see...

🦹 Crypto investors lost $161M in September 

It is a double the amount lost in August, Certik report says.

The main losses were:

• Exploits: ~$155.7M
• Flash loan attacks: ~$4.7M
• Exit Scams: $0.7M

🔑 Key crypto market highlights (October 2-9)

• Wemix Token service restriction of users with IP addresses in Singapore (02.10).
• Post Quantum Blockchain Day 2024 (04.10).
• Immutable (IMX) will unlock 32.47M tokens, or 2.02% of the circulating supply (04.10).
• Lunarlens to be listed on Gate.io (06.10).
• Hashflow (HFT) – 13.62M tokens, or 3% of the circulating supply to be unlocked (07.10).
• Neon (NEON) unlock of 53.91M coins or 93.43% of the circulating supply is set (07.10).
• Mode (MODE) will unlock 500M tokens, or 38.46% of the circulating supply (07.10).
• Archway will shut down its Archway Multisig (08.10).
• NvirWorld's launch of Nural Coin on the Nural Network (08.10).
• Solidus AI Tech to launch AI Marketplace (09.10).
• DEAPCOIN service enhancement update (09.10).
• Stacks' Nakamoto hard fork (09.10).

💲 Ideas 

[1] 🔔Promotion from ByBit in honor of CATS listing

ByBit has launched a new TokenSplash with a $50k $CATS (~$20) reward that can be linked to $CATI, as well as an affiliate promo of $15 in $HMSTR.

How to participate? 

• Register on Bybit 
• Complete KYC
• Go to the link and confirm participation and connect with $CATI promo

You can also combine it with an optional tournament and pick up $50 on any leverage and coin.

It will be useful for new users:

• Deposit 100$+ to account
• Trade in USDT/CATS pair

The first 12k participants will get 50k $CATS. The promotion has already started. Listing will take place on October 8 at 10:00 UTC

[2] 🔔 Potential surge in altcoin market

A cryptocurrency analyst Sivertbb has released a bold prediction for the crypto market, suggesting that investors holding altcoins might be in for a lucrative period. According to the analyst, current market indicators, particularly the Bitcoin dominance metric, point to a possible shift in funding flow from Bitcoin to various altcoins.

Bitcoin dominance, which measures Bitcoin's market share against the entire cryptocurrency market, has reportedly hit a critical point on the analyst's logarithmic chart. This technical indicator is often used by large-scale crypto investors to inform their trading strategies. The analyst interprets this as a sign that a reversal could be imminent, potentially triggering a significant movement of capital into large-cap, mid-cap, and even small-cap or meme-based cryptocurrencies.

*Any technical analysis in the long run cannot accurately predict the movement because now is a very tough market and the news can swing currencies in all directions

[3] 🔔 Passing the anti-sybil testnet

Humanity Protocol is a blockchain that uses Proo-of-Humanity technology. They use the palm of your hand as verification. The team has raised $30M from Animoca, Hashed, Shima, also Polygon funder contributed. Recently, Humanity Protocol announced a test network where we can book an ID and do some transactions. 

What to do:

• Go to the website, register, and use the code - "t".
• Get test tokens in the faucet.
• Make a few transactions to Sepolia and back.
• Track the rewards here.

That's all for this week's buidlbee newsletter! Until our next blockchain beat drops, keep calm and crypto on! 🎧💎

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