Daily Digest - 27 January 2023

Headlines

▌Phishing Attack Targets Robinhood Socials and Moonbirds Creator

Trading platform Robinhood suffered an attack on Jan. 25, with its Twitter compromised by hackers. The attackers posted a tweet saying it was launching a new token on the BSC network, attempting to swindle investors through the phishing attack. The attackers have made away with about $8,200. Robinhood has since deleted the tweet. Robinhood wasn’t the only platform to suffer such an incident this week. Popular NFT collection Moonbirds also saw an incident, with the wallet of founder Kevin Rose compromised. Rose’s estimated losses are reportedly over $1 million. NFTs that were stolen include those related to Cool Cats, Squiggles, and OnChainMonkeys. There are no updates yet as to how the hack occurred. The NFT space is becoming an increasingly popular choice for attackers.

Policies

▌Ex-UK Chancellor Philip Hammond Urges Accelerated Efforts to Become Crypto Hub

Former U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond says the country has allowed itself to fall behind some of its neighbors in establishing itself as a crypto hub. In an interview with the Financial Times, Hammond, who has been named as the new chair of crypto custodian Copper, said the U.K. needs to accelerate efforts to establish a more effective regulatory regime for digital assets. “The UK needs to be leading in this area post-Brexit,” Hammond said. "It’s allowed itself to slip behind. Switzerland is further ahead. The EU is also moving faster. There has to be appetite to take some measured risk.”

Cryptocurrency

▌Tesla Still Holds Bitcoin And No Dogecoin, But Maintains DOGE-Only Payments

Electric car manufacturer Tesla has released its fourth-quarter financial report, revealing that the company’s Bitcoin holdings have remained unchanged, just like its Dogecoin holdings – which are still zero. In the report released yesterday, the Elon Musk-led company revealed that despite the recent market crash, it neither bought nor sold BTC in the fourth quarter. With this, Tesla proves that it does not have “weak hands” and believes in Bitcoin appreciation, even though the company’s Bitcoin investment is still in deficit. Elon Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, however, continues to be absent from Tesla’s financial reports. The meme coin is not to be found with a single mention in the document. But at least the DOGE community can boast that the meme coin remains the only cryptocurrency Tesla accepts as means of payment on its website.

▌FTX Creditors List Include Apple, Google, Amazon, WSJ, and Even Australia’s Govt

One of the darkest moments in crypto’s recent history – the collapse of FTX – triggered massive financial losses for people and organizations. The lawyers of the bankrupt exchange revealed in a 115-page document that the number of affected investors is 9,693,985. Prominent cryptocurrency-related firms with funds stuck on the platform are Coinbase, Circle, Genesis, BlockFi, Galaxy Digital, Paradigm, and many others. Genesis and BlockFi could not resume their regular course of business after the crash and filed for bankruptcy protection. Tech behemoths, such as Apple, Meta, Samsung, Amazon, and Microsoft, are also part of the nearly 10 million creditors. The attorneys further mentioned some media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and CoinDesk. It is worth noting that even the government entities of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Guam, and The Virgin Islands are listed as FTX creditors. Central banks like the Bank of Cyprus and the Bank of the Bahamas are affected, too.

▌Sam Bankman-Fried’s Mother and Brother Not Cooperating in Financial Probe, FTX Lawyers Say

At least some of immediate family of Sam Bankman-Fried aren’t cooperating in the probe into the collapsed crypto exchange FTX and should be cross-questioned in court, the company’s lawyers have said in a legal filing made Wednesday. The FTX founder’s brother, mother and father were his “advisors,” and should be subpoenaed alongside former company executives, as the company’s new management seeks to find what happened to allegedly misappropriated funds, the filing said. Sam Bankman-Fried’s mother, Barbara Fried, “has ignored the requests altogether,” the attorneys say, while “the debtors have not received meaningful engagement or any response from [former chief engineer Nishad] Singh or Mr. Gabriel Bankman-Fried,” Sam’s brother. Discussions with lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried's father Joseph Bankman are "ongoing" and were expected to lead to a consensual outcome, the filing said.