A Day Of WTFs In Crypto

If things couldn’t get any worse for the now bankrupt firm, Celsius ($CEL.X) committed a huge WTF moment when it released a 14,000+ page document to the court identifying every user’s full name and all of their transactions made three months before the bankruptcy filing. 

Celsius objected to the full names, emails, and physical addresses of customers being publicly known – but the judge only allowed the emails and physical addresses of customers for redaction.

Another WTF moment became apparent when the transactions revealed three top executives actively withdrew large sums as the company was going through bankruptcy. Former CEO Mashinsky took out $10 million, CTO Goldstein a little over $500,000, and CSO Daniel Leon withdrew $7 million. 😡

First – let’s talk about what a bridge is. Compatibility and interoperability from one blockchain to another is still an issue. A bridge is basically a way for two different blockchains to convert tokens from one to another. 

For example, if you want to send Bitcoin ($BTC.X) to someone but they can only accept Cardano ($ADA.X), that person is kind of up shite crick because you can’t send your BTC to a Cardano wallet. Sure, you could sell the BTC and get ADA, but there’s a cost involved. 

Bridges act like a middleman of sorts, providing an easier way to convert and send receive from one network to another. That’s not much of an explanation, but it’s something you can read about in a future Crypto 101 article. 

But here’s the problem with bridges: apparently, their security sucks.

If a blockchain is a gated community where everything is organized, and you have security guards and cameras and can’t enter and exit willy-nilly, then a bridge is like a McDonald’s ball pit. Only a little plastic mesh keeps the screaming kids and toddlers from throwing multi-peed on plastic balls around a public eating area.

And exploits and/or hacks of bridges have generated some of the biggest cryptocurrency losses in history:

• $611 million from Poly Network in August 2021
• $320 million from the Wormhole hack in February 2022
• $200 million from the Nomad hack in August 2022

So how often does the industry need to be hacked via bridges before they get better, or do people just stop using them? What will it take? Because another bridge exploit occurred on Thursday, this time hitting Binance’s BNB token. 

Long story short, the cross-chain bridge BSC Token Hub linking with Binance Chain ($BNB.X) was exploited to the tune of 2 million BNB tokens – roughly $570 million. However, CZ (Binance’s CEO) stated during a live interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box that the damage has now been limited to under $100 million. 

BNB Chain was previously halted but is now back up and running. 🤒

The clown show that is Terra continues. Case in point: Terra’s Head of General Affairs (Yu) was issued an arrest warrant by South Korean law enforcement, then arrested, and then the warrant was promptly dismissed by another judge. Long story short, the judge didn’t see a reason to hold Yu. 

The arrest fiasco comes after Terra’s founder, Do ‘Con’ Kwon, was ordered to return his passport within fourteen days. The notice was posted publicly because, not surprisingly, South Korean officials have been unable to locate Kwon. 

South Korea’s foreign affairs ministry originally sent ‘Con’ Kwon the order to return his passport on September 15 but issued an ‘inability to deliver. Kwon must return his passport to the ministry or an embassy before October 19, or his passport will be canceled. However, if he turns it in, he won’t be able to get it reissued until after September 13, 2023. 

So what happens if his passport is canceled? Not hard to imagine how difficult it will be to fly or travel without a valid passport. Kwon, of course, denies that he is on the run but won’t disclose where he is.

The State of Louisiana is divesting from investing behemoth BlackRock ($BLK.X). Lousiana’s State Treasurer John Schroder wrote to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, 

“Your blatantly anti-fossil fuel policies would destroy Louisiana’s economy. This divestment is necessary to protect Louisiana from actions and policies that would actively seek to hamstring our fossil fuel sector. In my opinion, your support of ESG investing is inconsistent with the best economic interests and values of Louisiana.”

How much of a divestment does that represent? Nearly $800 million. $560 has already been divested. As a result, various Bitcoin ($BTC.X) advocates took to social media and suggested that Lousiana invest some of that money into Bitcoin.

Louisiana joins Texas, Kentucky, Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Arkansas, and North Dakota in targeting banks and firms that pursue ESG practices. 🍃