Vitalik Buterin’s X account was hacked: Victims have a loss of $ 691,000; FTX moves to recover money paid to Shaq and Naomi Osaka; Binance ends support for Polygon-based NFTs
Vitalik Buterin’s X account was hacked
Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s X (formerly Twitter) account was hacked. According to statements made by leading blockchain researcher ZachXBT, the hack caused victims to collectively lose over $691,000 after clicking on a malicious link.
Vitalik’s account was compromised the other day, his father Dmitry Buterin announced.
“Ignore this post, it looks like Vitalik has been hacked. He is working to restore access.”
However, the post mentioned by Vitalik’s father has been deleted since its publication.
The hacker shared a malicious link to an allegedly available free commemorative token (NFT), convincing victims to link their wallets and ultimately stealing all their funds.
As a result of all this, the hacking attack led Ethereum developer Bok Khoo, better known as ‘Bokky Poobah’ on X, to claim that he suffered losses in the CryptoPunk NFT collection.
ZachXBT also shared that the most valuable NFT stolen so far is “CryptoPunk #250,543” worth 153.62 Ethereum, equivalent to approximately $3983.
FTX moves to recover money paid to Shaq and Naomi Osaka
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has started research to recover the money paid to Shaquille O’Neal and Naomi Osaka.
According to Bloomberg, FTX is exploring ways to get its money back from athletes and teams it has previously paid for advertising.
Among the names FTX wants to get its money back are NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal and famous tennis player Naomi Osaka.
FTX had signed major advertising deals in 2021, its peak period.
In addition to Shaq and Osaka, Stephen Curry is also among the names FTX has signed. Tom Brady, on the other hand, has a different relationship with the exchange because he owns shares.
FTX is looking for ways to pay back its customers
FTX CEO John J. Ray III and other executives continue their work on how to repay customer funds.
FTX Group wants to recover some of the payments it made to O’Neal, Osaka and other athletes.
The company’s financial advisors are investigating whether these payments can be recovered under a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
The company had previously paid MLB $4.9 million to carry its logo. In addition, a $12.2 million payment was made to Mercedes–AMG Petronass, one of the Formula 1 teams.
The Golden State Warriors are also among the clubs paid by FTX. Alvarez & Marsal, which provides financial advisory services on the stock exchange, also analysed whether the payment could be recovered from the club.
According to court documents, FTX made a $2 million payment to the Warriors 1 month before the bankruptcy was declared.
After FTX’s bankruptcy, celebrities who appeared in stock market adverts became targets of the community. O’Neal, Osaka and other athletes claimed that they were treated unfairly.
Binance ends support for Polygon-based NFTs
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced that it will end support for Polygon-based NFTs.
According to Binance, support for Polygon NFTs will end on 26 September 2023 at 06:00 UTC. As of this date, users will not be able to purchase Polygon NFTs on the platform.
Users must withdraw their Polygon NFTs by 31 December 2023 23:59 UTC, the exchange said.
The Sandbox NFT staking programme is also being terminated
Binance stated in the same statement that the NFT staking programme for The Sandbox will be terminated on the same date. Users will not be able to stake their LAND NFTs on the Polygon network from 26 September.
Binance’s statement included the following statements:
“This decision was made after careful review and evaluation. Our move is part of our ongoing efforts to facilitate product offerings on the Binance NFT Marketplace.”
Binance NFT Marketplace will continue to support Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB Chain networks with the removal of Polygon support.
Liquidity statement
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said on X the other day that the exchange does not have any liquidity problems.
CZ spoke about the wounding of fiat support, staff layoffs and the cancellation of some deals, saying that these will be addressed with new moves in the coming period.
CZ assured investors that customer funds are safe and kept in a completely separate form.
