In today’s edition of Bitmama’s weekly crypto news roundup, we cover interesting developments in the cryptocurrency industry. Top picks – Bored Ape Yacht Club Discord compromised in $357,000 NFT phishing attack, Japan reportedly introduces a bill focused on Stablecoins in the aftermath of LUNA’s collapse, Kenya’s largest power provider plans to deliver access to geothermal power to bitcoin miners
Let’s get started.
Bored Ape Yacht Club Discord compromised in $357,000 NFT phishing attack
Less than two months after someone compromised the official Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) Instagram account to steal $2.4 million worth of NFTs, BAYC creator Yuga Labs is again facing questions about its security measures. In the early hours of June 4th, a scammer carried out a phishing attack that netted them 200 Ethereum worth of NFTs, according to Web3 is Going Great. After obtaining the login credentials of a community manager, the hacker reportedly used the official Bored Apes Discord to promote a fake giveaway exclusive to holders of Bored Ape, Mutant Ape and Otherside NFTs.
“Do not mint through ANY other websites,” the announcement said after linking to the website the hacker used to steal the NFTs. “This is the only official site!” According to data from blockchain security firm PeckShield, one BAYC and two Mutant Apes tokens were stolen in the scam. At the current Ethereum exchange rate, the entire trove is worth more than $357,000.
Yuga Labs said their Discord servers were briefly exploited and the team addressed it quickly; about 200 ETH worth of NFTs appear to have been impacted. The company said it was still investigating the incident. The BAYC Discord, among a handful of other servers tied to high-profile NFT projects, was also hacked at the start of April when a bad actor compromised the CAPTCHA bot Yuga Labs used to deter spammers.
Japan reportedly introduces a bill focused on Stablecoins in the aftermath of LUNA’s collapse
According to a recent Bloomberg report, the Japanese authorities issued new guidelines on stablecoins. The lawmakers granted the assets a legal status, recognizing them as digital money. However, stablecoins must be pegged to the country’s national currency (the yen) or another legal tender to be categorized as such.
The newly-passed bill means that only authorized banks, trust companies, and money transfer agents can issue that type of token. The directive does not apply to the largest stablecoins by market capitalization – Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) – but only to stablecoins issued by Japanese enterprises. Currently, no local exchanges issue such products.
Japan’s Financial Services Agency explained the legislation will become effective in a year. At the same time, stablecoin issuers will be put under the authorities’ scope in the following months.
The necessity for new rules in the space could be prompted by the recent collapse of Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin – UST. Last month, the token lost its peg and is currently trading at a mere $0.02. The crash caused significant panic in the crypto sector, while numerous investors parted with colossal sums.
Kenya’s largest power provider plans to deliver access to geothermal power to bitcoin miners
KenGen, Kenya’s largest producer of electricity, has announced plans to attract Bitcoin miners to use its geothermal energy. According to the report, the company will provide its surplus geothermal power to miners.
So far, Kenya does not have any cryptocurrency mining farms. It is believed that the company is reaching out to Bitcoin miners about energy purchases that are situated in the US and Europe. The move aligns with the broader industry’s push that seeks to address the carbon emissions from crypto mining operations.
KenGen is the leading supplier of electricity in the country and claims to have 86% green energy derived from renewable resources (including hydro and wind besides geothermal) while the rest 14% is thermal.
It has not disclosed details of the surplus capacity that will be issued to the Bitcoin miners.
The plan is to have miners set up in an energy park at the company’s main geothermal power station in Olkaria, Naivasha, 123 km from the capital Nairobi.
