The US has linked North Korean hacker groups Lazarus Group and APT38 to the $625 million cryptocurrency heist focusing on players of the popular Axie Infinity decentralised blockchain-based game.
In other news, Indrea Kempis, Mexican senator, Nuevo León state, has introduced a bill which includes a provision to include virtual assets like central bank digital currency (CBDC) to be used as a currency and be circulated in Mexico.
Cryptocurrency Prices
The global crypto market cap decreased by 2.75 per cent to $1.87 trillion at 8.50 am. The global crypto volume was down by 4.67 per cent to $77.32 billion, according to Coinmarketcap data.
Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s oldest cryptocurrency, was trading at $40,035.54, lower by 3.28 per cent in the last 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH) was also trading lower by 3.21 per cent at $3,026.94.
“Bitcoin, Ether and other major cryptocurrencies have declined amid the continuing macroeconomic uncertainty. For the market to indicate bullish counter trend signals, the weekly price closes will have to be above $40,000," says Gaurav Dahake, CEO and founder, Bitbns.
Among other major coins, Cardano (ADA) was down by 3.92 per cent at $0.9405, Algorand (ALGO) was trading with a loss of 3.09 per cent at $0.732, Binance Coin (BNB) was down by 2.24 per cent at $415.45, Solana was also down by 4.89 per cent at $100.71, and Polkadot (DOT) was trading with a loss of 2.18 per cent at $18.00.
Today’s top gainer was CyborgShiba (CBS), which was up by 1313.18 per cent at $0.000003131. The top loser was Conqueror
(CONQ), which was down by 64.64 per cent at $0.00285.
Dogecoin (DOGE) was, however, up by 1.73 per cent at $0.1434. Its volume to market cap ratio stands at 0.09417. Rival Shiba Inu (SHIB) was down by 2.59 per cent at $0.00002587.
Dogelon Mars (ELON) lost 3.57 per cent to trade at $0.0000008079, Floki Inu (FLOKI) was also down by 4.55 per cent at $0.00003024, and Samoyed Coin (SAMO) was down by 3.4 per cent at $0.01954.
In the DeFi segment, YFI (yearn.finance) was trading with a loss of 2.51 per cent at $18,884.02. However, Terra (LUNA) was also down by 8.46 per cent to $81.62. Avalanche (AVAX) too lost 3.95 per cent at $77.82, Uniswap (UNI) was however up by 0.66 per cent to trade at $9.77, and Aave (AAVE) was down by 1.85 per cent to trade at $174.17.
“Through our investigations, we were able to confirm that Lazarus Group and APT38, cyber actors associated with North Korea, are responsible for the theft,” the FBI said in a statement to the press. “The US is aware that the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) has increasingly relied on illicit activities–including cybercrime–to generate revenue for its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs as it tries to evade robust US and UN sanctions,” a Treasury Department spokesperson said, according to an Al Jazeera report.
