Atomic Wallet hacked, users’ funds lost; Coinbase sees AI as an opportunity for the crypto industry; Mining companies continue to move forward despite the falling Bitcoin price.
Atomic is a decentralized wallet without any surveillance. Users are responsible for assets stored in the application.
The Atomic team said in a statement on Twitter, “We have received information that the wallets have been seized. We are doing everything we can to investigate and analyze the situation. We will make an announcement when we have more information.”
Some users commented on the post reporting the losses, claiming that funds were deleted from their digital wallet apps. ZachBTX, known for tracking down stolen funds and helping hacked projects, is also involved in the investigation.
DeFi app Jimbos Protocol was exploited on May 28, resulting in the loss of 4000 Ether worth approximately $7.5 million. The decentralized crypto mixer Tornado Cash was also recently hacked. On May 20, an attacker took full control of the protocol through a bogus bid.
According to a Chainalysis report, crypto hackers seized an estimated $3.8 billion last year. According to another analysis by TRM Labs, the number of attacks in the first quarter of 2023 remained, on average, the same. However, the amount of stolen crypto has decreased.
Coinbase sees AI as an opportunity for the crypto industry
Coinbase sees AI as an important opportunity for the crypto industry.
Coinbase, the largest US cryptocurrency exchange, believes that artificial intelligence and crypto integration can help ward off some of the excesses.
The company’s head of research, David Duong, used the following statements in his June 1 research report:
“As AI and applications on blockchain mature, new areas of collaboration may emerge and pave the way for new use cases for cryptocurrencies.”
Increasing use of artificial intelligence in the crypto industry
Although research shows that crypto and artificial intelligence can be intertwined, the number of crypto projects using artificial intelligence is still quite low. According to data provided by research firm Messari, the total market value of crypto money projects directly related to artificial intelligence stands at $772 million. This accounts for about 0.07% of the total market value.
However, according to the data provided by CoinGecko, the tokens in the artificial intelligence category managed to receive large amounts of investment with the popularization of ChatGPT.
Duong also highlighted that some potential use cases will combine artificial intelligence and crypto.
Mining companies continue to move forward despite the falling Bitcoin price
Bitcoin mining has been hit hard by the unfortunate events in the crypto market last year. Despite the fact that the profitability of Bitcoin mining has dropped by 44 percent, BTC mining companies continue to produce. In fact, companies do not only produce, but also make serious investments in mining equipment.
The US-based mining company CleanSpark announced that it has purchased 12,500 new Antminer S19 XP devices for $40.5 million.
Bitcoin mining surpassed 50 trillion in the past day, hitting an all-time high. This situation started to put more pressure on the miners. Looking at the net hah rates, it was close to its highest level with 395 EG/s on 30 May. It did not go unnoticed that CleanSpark bought mining equipment worth $40.5 million in such an environment.
According to CleanSpark’s equipment purchase agreement, 6,000 devices will be delivered in June. The rest is expected to be delivered in August.
As is known, CleanSpark’s mining facility is located in Georgia. According to the company’s official website, CleanSpark currently has 67,700 mining equipment in operation. Also, the company has mined 2,395 BTC since the start of the year.
Bitfarms, one of the other mining companies, issued a total of 459 BTC in May, increasing its production by 6.5 percent compared to the previous year.
