Holy SHIB: Someone Turned $8,000 to $5.7 Billion in ~400 Days

October 28, 2021       /       Unchained Daily       /       Laura Shin

Daily Bits ✍️✍️✍️

• Ethereum’s supply is on pace to annually shrink thanks to the introduction of EIP 1559 to the network.

• SHIB, a meme token, broke into the top 10 cryptocurrencies based on market cap yesterday following a 70% price spike in 24 hours.

• El Salvador’s President, Nayib Bukele, announced the country “bought the dip” yesterday — to the tune of 420 BTC.

• Blockchain companies petitioned Valve, the company behind the gaming platform Steam, to reverse its decision to boot NFT video games from its platform.

• Coinbase experienced extended outages on Wednesday affecting its main app, along with Coinbase Pro and Coinbase credit cards.

• BanklessDAO launched a new index on Index Coop using the ticker $GMI.

• The Direxion Bitcoin Strategy Bear ETF would maintain short exposure to BTC future contracts if approved by the SEC.

• Biden’s nominee to head the CFTC wants the CFTC to be the “primary cop” on the crypto regulatory beat.

• Bitcoin dropped below $60,000 for the first time in 10 days yesterday.

• Anchorage, a crypto bank, is set to announce a funding round that would value the company between $2 billion and $3 billion.

• The Cryptocurrency Task Force of Miami-Dade County in Florida is creating a task force to study the feasibility of accepting cryptocurrency as payment.

What Do You Meme?

What’s Poppin’?

Cream Finance, a DeFi lending protocol, was hacked yesterday. According to Cream’s Twitter account, the attacker removed roughly $130 million worth of crypto tokens from their markets before a patch could be implemented.

PeckShield first identified the flash-loan exploit at 9:12 am ET, at which time CREAM was trading at approximately $150 per token, according to CoinMarketCap. By 10:00 am ET, CREAM had fallen below $120, where it stayed for the rest of the day.

Notably, the attacker appears to be skilled, as the flash loan exploit involved 69 token transfers and cost 9.16 ETH in gas to execute. Mudit Gupta, a blockchain security researcher, outlined 23 distinct steps the attacker took in his analysis of the hack. “The attacker really thought this through,” said Gupta on Twitter. “They even bought some dusd and redeemed it for yUSD that they can burn to reduce total supply of yUSD. Lower total supply requires smaller donation to double its value. Overall, this was a very detailed exploit,” he added.

This is the third time that Cream Finance has lost funds this year to flash loan attacks. In February, Cream lost $37.5 million to an attacker using Alpha Homora, and in August, Cream suffered an exploit of roughly $25 million via a bug in its AMP token contract.

Recommended Reads

• Will Clemente, an on-chain analyst at Blockware, on Bitcoin price targets:

• An anon on the legality of DAOs:

• John St. Capital on DAOs and group investing:

On The Pod…

Not Reporting Info on Some Transaction Partners Could Soon Be a Felony

Remember the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which caused considerable backlash from the crypto community due to the language regarding “brokers?” Abe Sutherland, an adjunct professor at University of Virginia School of Law, believes another provision tucked inside the bill could end up being a far more significant issue for anyone transacting in digital assets. Show highlights:

• how Abe fell down the crypto rabbit hole

• what provision 6050I is and how it could affect anyone transacting with digital assets

• how 6050I works and when it would apply

• why violating 6050I would be a felony

• how 6050I discourages digital asset transactions

• how 6050I would apply to different transaction types, like peer-to-peer trades, NFT sales, and smart contract escrow accounts

• what information recipients of digital assets must verify from the sender

• how the government came up with the $10,000 reporting threshold and why Abe believes this number is outdated

• why Abe thinks proposing 6050I within the infrastructure bill is inappropriate

• what reasons the government has to want to put such stringent reporting requirements on digital asset transactions

• how 6050I fits under the financial laws of the Bank Secrecy Act

• why Abe believes the amendment should be struck from the infrastructure bill

• what Abe thinks of the constitutionality of 6050I

• how Abe views 6050I as less about generating tax revenue and more about tracking people’s digital asset transactions

• what action steps he says the crypto community can take to fix the bill

Book Update

You can purchase it here: http://bit.ly/cryptopians