The crypto
industry currently has a wide and common perception that the next “Big move” will
be full interoperability between different networks and protocols. Thus, token
bridges have been created as a protocol to transfer tokens from one blockchain
to another. However, such protocols seem to be quite vulnerable as two of them
were hacked over the last six months. In February a wormhole protocol hack allowed
hackers to mint themselves $320 million in Wrapped Ether without posting the
required collateral. Ronin bridge was hacked in March, resulting in $625 million
losses for clients. Token bridge Nomad recently suffered a raid by hackers
causing $190 million in losses.
Nomad
protocol supports Ethereum, Avalanche, Moonbeam, Evmos, and Milkomeda networks.
The hack came after a fatal error emerged during standard protocol updates
which allowed the code to process any correctly compiled message without
validating it. So, anybody could take a previous transaction, replace the
address with their own and submit the message again to make a “fake”
transaction.
Such
exploits have been discovered on a large scale, making the crypto industry
highly sensitive to any fraud reports. Solana network suffered from an attack which
exploited unidentified protocol holes which allowed for the hacking of 8,000
wallets and the loss of $10 million. The only protection from such fraud is to
transfer assets to cold hardware wallets or to permanently keep phones on
flight mode.
Bitcoin
prices continue to move inside a global downtrend with a target of $20,000 per
coin despite recent price spikes. The price has formed a double top pattern on
the chart, and may dive below the strong support level, which has become a
frequent phenomenon after the price hit such levels a month record. The first
top came on July 20, while the second emerged on July 30. The double top
pattern will be activated when BTC prices slip below $20,700, setting a new
target at $17,000.
However,
there is no reason to be completely fatalistic about the crypto industry as a
dive in the price of Bitcoin below the previous upside cycle peak is not a
final verdict. Institutional investors continue to fund various infrastructure
projects related to digital assets. Bits Crypto, a mobile app used to invest in
cryptocurrencies, has recently received $1.2 million in pre-seed funding to
facilitate gradual investments in crypto. HOF Capital, an investor to MoonPay,
Stripe and Kraken, led the round. MarqVision, a brand protection software
developer that uses artificial intelligence to detect counterfeit products
online, including NFT’s, attracted $20 million. Dragonfly Capital
led the investment round for Debt DAO, a crypto lending protocol developer.
Garry Vee NFT Project VeeFriends raised $50 million. So, investors continue to
look for perspective projects and fund them despite recent corrections in the
crypto market.