Good Morning Crypto Enthusiasts!

Glad to have you back for another edition of the UseTheBitcoin.com newsletter.

1. WazirX to Restore Balances After $234M Hack: Indian crypto exchange WazirX plans to restore account balances and reverse certain trades following a $234.9 million hack.

2. ZachXBT Exposé: Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has uncovered a network of North Korean developers earning up to $500,000 per month by working on numerous crypto projects.

3. Vitalik Buterin Donates to Charity: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has donated over $500,000 in animal-themed memecoins to a charity focused on animal welfare.

4. 💡Feature of the Day - Immutable x Fireblocks: Immutable, a Web3 gaming blockchain, has partnered with Fireblocks to enhance asset management for game developers in its ecosystem.

   
   All this and more in today’s headlines!

📰 News Highlights:

WazirX to Restore Balances After $234M Hack [Source][Source][Source]

Indian crypto exchange WazirX has announced a crucial maintenance period to restore account balances and undo specific trades following a devastating hack that resulted in the theft of $234.9 million in cryptocurrency assets.

The maintenance is set to take place from 6:00 pm to 2:00 am Indian Standard Time on August 15-16, during which all services on WazirX will be temporarily unavailable.

The breach, first detected by Web3 security firm Cyvers, involved multiple suspicious transactions from WazirX’s Safe Multisig wallet on Ethereum, severely impacting the exchange and its users.

WazirX has taken immediate steps to secure remaining assets and address discrepancies caused by the hack.

By restoring account balances and reversing trades made after the July 18 withdrawal stoppage, WazirX aims to mitigate the financial impact on its users and ensure a fair outcome in response to the irregularities.

ZachXBT Exposé [Source]

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has uncovered a sophisticated network of North Korean developers allegedly earning up to $500,000 per month by working on numerous crypto projects.

In an August 15 post, ZachXBT revealed that at least 21 workers, likely based in North Korea, are employed by over 25 crypto projects, generating significant revenue.

The network came to light after a team sought ZachXBT's help following a $1.3 million theft from their treasury, which was traced back to malicious code inserted by developers using fake identities.

Further investigation revealed that these developers are part of a much larger operation, with transactions totaling $5.5 million traced back to North Korea.

The payments were linked to individuals sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for coordinating financial transfers that support North Korea’s weapons programs.

ZachXBT also found connections to Russian Telecom IPs among developers who falsely claimed to be based in the U.S. and Malaysia. Some developers even referred each other for work through recruitment companies, complicating efforts to track and stop their activities.

Vitalik Buterin Donates to Charity [Source][Source][Source]

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has donated more than $500,000 in animal-themed memecoins to a charity focused on animal welfare. In an August 15 post on X, Buterin shared that he had sent 200 Ether, valued at $532,398, to the Effective Altruism Funds’ Animal Welfare Fund.

This donation follows a series of events in which a memecoin project, Neiro Ethereum (NEIRO), attempted to use Buterin's name to gain attention, resulting in Buterin selling the tokens and subsequently donating the proceeds.

Buterin urged the memecoin community to send their contributions directly to charities rather than to him, emphasizing the need for more "sophisticated public goods funding" in the crypto space.

He pointed to his previous blog post on memecoins, suggesting that financialization should serve a purpose for the public good, such as supporting art, creativity, open-source software, or improving healthcare.

💡 Feature of the Day: 

Immutable x Fireblocks [Source][Source][Source][Source]

Immutable, a leading Web3 gaming blockchain, has announced a partnership with Fireblocks to enhance asset management for game developers within its ecosystem.

This integration will allow developers to securely store and manage assets associated with game economies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols on Immutable's Polygon-powered zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) chain.

The partnership aims to reshape treasury management for games, builders, DeFi projects, and ecosystem partners on Immutable zkEVM.

Immutable's co-founder and president, Robbie Ferguson, emphasized that Fireblocks' infrastructure would support smooth operations in NFT and game transactions, as well as ensure the security of digital assets within the Immutable network.

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See you all tomorrow’s edition!

Jonathan Gibson
UseTheBitcoin.com