Survey Reveals Favorable Public Opinion on Binance’s Acquisition of Korean Exchange Gopax

Lotte Group’s Bellygom NFT Project Garners Global Fanbase of Over 300KDaehong Communications and Lotte Homeshopping shared yesterday that their NFT project has now garnered a global fanbase exceeding 300,000 members. The two companies are subsidiaries of South Korean industrial conglomerate Lotte Group.Photo by Khinaii van Laren on UnsplashPartnership initiatives as global expansionTheir NFT initiative, operated by the group’s marketing arm Daehong, is based on Bellygom, the pink bear character representing Lotte Homeshopping. As part of its global strategy, the Bellygom NFT project has formed partnerships with various international projects and has been actively involved in communication efforts. Notably, Bellygom’s X (formerly Twitter) account, created earlier this year, has attracted 100,000 followers within a span of five months.At the end of last month, Daehong successfully completed the minting of Bellyland, the second NFT collection of the Bellygom project. The minting event was accompanied by Jelly Adventure, a universe where users can participate in a wide range of missions and games to earn “Bubble Gums.” Notably, Jelly Adventure is not only accessible to Bellyland NFT holders but also to those of other projects such as YogaPetz and Mocaverse.It’s worth highlighting that the minting event achieved the sale of over 5,000 NFTs, even during a period of reduced activity in the NFT market. Despite the declining minting prices and quantities, it managed to raise over 750,000 MATIC.Joining of new international usersAdditionally, the minting event attracted new international users to the Bellygom project, underlining its sustainability. The successful debut of Bellyland NFTs has significantly contributed to the project’s global expansion and presence.Furthermore, Daehong is pursuing a range of initiatives aimed at cultivating a fan-centric ecosystem with the ultimate objective of driving broader adoption of Web3 technologies. With the belief that the fanbase provides a strong foothold for the brand’s growth, the marketing firm plays a crucial role in facilitating the introduction of the Bellygom brand to the Web3 space. To this end, Daehong is constructing a universe with a story that embodies the brand’s identity while seamlessly integrating it with conventional marketing strategies.

Taiko Labs Raises Funding to Build Ethereum-Equivalent zkEVMTaiko Labs, a crypto startup focused on scaling the Ethereum blockchain, has successfully raised a total of $22 million in two funding rounds.According to a blog article published to the startup’s website on Thursday, the first funding round, a $10 million seed raise, was led by Sequoia China and concluded in the third quarter of 2022. The second round, a recent pre-Series A round, raised $12 million and was led by Generative Ventures, according to co-founder Daniel Wang.Photo by cottonbro studio on PexelsBroad investor participationNotable investors in the two rounds include IOSG Ventures, GSR, and GGV Capital, as well as angel investors like Patricio Worthalter, the Founder of the Proof of Attendance Protocol (POAP), Tim Beiko from the Ethereum Foundation, and Anthony Sassano, Co-Founder and COO of the decentralized virtual world, The Sandbox. Taiko Labs has not disclosed its valuation.Scaling EthereumThe primary focus of Taiko Labs is to develop a scaling solution for the Ethereum blockchain that closely adheres to Ethereum’s design and ideology. The company refers to its product as a Type 1 zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM).Vitalik Buterin, the inventor of Ethereum, emphasized the importance of Type 1 zkEVMs for scaling the Ethereum layer 1 in a blog post. Taiko Labs aims to extend Ethereum’s capabilities by sticking to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) specification and leveraging its best properties, as explained by Matthew Finestone, co-founder of Taiko Labs.On Wednesday, Taiko Labs released its latest version, its alpha-3 testnet, Grímsvötn, marking a significant milestone on its path to a decentralized and Ethereum-equivalent ZK-EVM.Taiko backstoryThe journey towards Taiko Labs began when Daniel Wang and Matthew Finestone worked together at Loopring Foundation, a trading and payment protocol based on zk-rollup technology. Wang served as the founder and CEO of Loopring Foundation from July 2017 until November 2021, while Finestone worked as the head of business for three years.Wang initially intended to build a decentralized social network but encountered a major obstacle — the lack of infrastructure and scalability. This realization led to the birth of the idea for Taiko Labs.Wang commented on the funding milestone, stating: “We believe that we are now on the cusp of having a truly decentralized Ethereum-equivalent ZK-rollup. This is our core mission at Taiko and we are incredibly proud to partner with leading investors who share our uncompromising vision.”The successful financing rounds will enable Taiko Labs to ensure a successful launch of its mainnet. However, the company is considering raising additional capital, partly to establish an ecosystem investment fund that will attract decentralized applications (dApps) and developers to the ecosystem.In terms of organizational structure, Taiko Labs plans to follow in Ethereum’s footsteps. Wang told The Block: “We are going to quickly convert the organization into a non-profit one. Ideally, we’ll operate very similarly to the Ethereum Foundation.”These successful funding rounds provide a solid foundation for Taiko Labs’ future endeavors, and the company is aiming to make a meaningful impact on the global adoption of blockchain technology with its focus on scaling.

Crypto vulnerability uncovered with $1B in digital asset exposureSecurity vulnerabilities in the validator infrastructure of InfStones, an established infrastructure provider, have been disclosed by Tel Aviv-headquartered cybersecurity firm dWallet Labs.Photo by Brett Jordan on UnsplashBlockchain network validator vulnerabilityIn a detailed Medium blog post published on Tuesday, dWallet Labs shed light on a series of vulnerabilities that, when exploited, could potentially allow attackers to gain full control, execute code and extract private keys from numerous validators on major blockchain networks. Cryptocurrencies such as ETH, BNB, SUI, APT and others were identified as at risk, with potential direct losses estimated to exceed one billion dollars.The vulnerabilities discovered by dWallet Labs opened the door for attackers to compromise the private keys of validators across multiple blockchain networks, putting over one billion dollars of staked assets at risk. In response to the findings, InfStones, a Web3 infrastructure platform, also released a statement on Tuesday acknowledging the potential threat. However, its representative, Darko Radunovic, disputed the figures provided by dWallet Labs in a statement sent to Cointelegraph. Radunovic stated that the vulnerabilities identified in the production environment account for below 0.1% of their active nodes launched to date, emphasizing that the impact would be limited to a small fraction of their operational nodes.According to InfStones, “237 instances were in scope, of which 212 instances were deployed for our development and testing purposes, and 25 freshly deployed instances in the production environment.”Mitigating steps takenThe company detailed the immediate actions taken to mitigate the vulnerabilities, including shutting down the affected ports, as well as rotating all credentials and keys within their platform. An internal review conducted by InfStones revealed no additional adverse effects. Notwithstanding that, the company took the additional step of hiring an external security firm to audit its systems and policies.Meanwhile, dWallet Labs Founder and CEO Omer Sadika shared his thoughts on the X platform as to how he believes such events should be handled. Sadika wrote:”The worst way to handle a cybersecurity vulnerability is not taking responsibility and lying. We were super open and transparent with the goal of eliminating the risk to web3. My take: it’s not about whether you are fully secure or not, because no one is, it’s about how you handle it and maintain the trust with your partners and customers.”The collaboration between dWallet Labs and InfStones sheds light on the ongoing challenges faced by the cryptocurrency industry in maintaining the security and integrity of blockchain networks. While vulnerabilities were identified and addressed, the incident underscores the importance of proactive security measures to safeguard the assets and data within the rapidly evolving landscape of digital assets.