Chinese City Unveils Plan to Develop Metaverse

FPG Halts Withdrawals Following HackFloating Point Group (FPG), a prominent crypto prime brokerage platform, has temporarily halted trading, deposits, and withdrawals following a cyber security incident that occurred on Sunday.Photo by Thom Milkovic on UnsplashIncident responseFPG, headquartered in Singapore while maintaining a base in Hoboken, New Jersey in the United States, manages over $50 billion in assets. The firm took immediate action upon discovering the incident by engaging third-party forensics experts and law enforcement agencies.The company acknowledged the problem publicly via a tweet thread on Twitter on Wednesday. FPG stated that the company has locked all third-party accounts and secured its wallets while it investigates the extent and details of the breach. Although the full extent of the loss is still under investigation, the current estimate stands at approximately $15 million to $20 million in lost cryptocurrencies.Investigative cooperationIn response to the incident, FPG is collaborating with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, regulatory bodies, and Chainalysis to comprehend the nature of the attack and initiate asset recovery measures. As the investigation involving those entities is ongoing, specific details are not being disclosed at this stage, but FPG has pledged to provide updates as new information becomes available.The cyber security incident comes six months after FPG obtained a SOC 2 certification, which verifies the implementation of robust security, privacy, and control measures by service organizations to ensure the reliable handling of sensitive data and systems.Originally founded in 2018 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, FPG functions as both a crypto prime brokerage platform and an agency trading desk for asset managers, offering access to liquidity across various markets. In December, FPG announced that its blockchain foundation customers accounted for 5% of the total treasury management market.Backed by prominent investors such as Coinbase Ventures, Anthony Scaramucci of SkyBridge Capital, and Naval Ravikant, the founder of AngelList, FPG has raised a total of $12 million in funding thus far.In August of the previous year, FPG successfully registered as a virtual asset service provider (VASP) in the Cayman Islands. This registration ensured the secure custody of customer assets and safeguarded them from the company’s creditors in the unlikely event of bankruptcy.Broader crypto issuesIt has not been a good couple of weeks for the crypto sector relative to hacks and platform withdrawal pauses. Within the past twenty four hours, two Asia-based crypto lending platforms, Haru Invest and Delio, have suspended withdrawals. In those cases, the issue is suspected to relate to platform contagion and solvency issues.Earlier this month, the Atomic Wallet platform was hacked despite the understanding that the project offered self-custodial wallets. Originally, the loss was estimated at $35 million, but more recent reports are now estimating that figure to be in excess of $100 million.As FPG continues its efforts to mitigate the aftermath of the cyber attack, industry participants eagerly await further updates and measures undertaken by the company to recover from this incident and restore trust among its clients.

Mocaverse, a membership-based NFT collection initiative enabled by Hong Kong’s Animoca Brands, revealed on Friday the establishment of strategic alliances with prominent Web3 wallets OKX Wallet, Crypto.com DeFi Wallet and Halo Wallet. In a separate announcement, it also revealed a similar partnership with crypto exchange platform KuCoin. Extending Moca IDs to OKX, Crypto.com and Halo usersIn a statement released by Animoca Brands, it was highlighted that through the deployment of its recently introduced decentralized identity (DID) Moca ID, Mocaverse is set to catalyze user expansion by integrating with the aforementioned leading self-custodial wallets. The statement clarified that Moca ID will act as the conduit for users to seamlessly navigate various Web3 cultural experiences, spanning PointFi, GameFi and SocialFi, thereby simplifying the onboarding process into the Mocaverse ecosystem. The collaboration will mean that users of OKX Wallet, Crypto.com DeFi Wallet and Halo Wallet will soon have the opportunity to claim their unique Moca IDs within the app, thereby gaining entry into the Mocaverse ecosystem and unlocking access to a myriad of rewarding cultural and entertainment experiences.Photo by Shubham's Web3 on UnsplashRealm Points incentiveHolders of Moca ID stand to accrue Realm Points through active participation and engagement within partner ecosystems and experiences, with the ability to redeem these points for exclusive real-life benefits and rewards provided by Mocaverse and Animoca Brands. Commenting on the development, Kenneth Shek, project lead at Mocaverse, stated:“This partnership encompasses the values and mission we set out when we envisioned Moca ID, which is to make interoperability a new standard to onboard new users and redefine the Web3 network effect through the Mocaverse Partner Network.”Mocaverse seeks to unify Animoca's portfolio projects, subsidiaries, joint ventures and partners through a distinctive NFT collection. With 8,888 Mocas as NFT profile pictures (PFPs), Mocaverse serves as a membership pass for Animoca Brands team members, investors, partners and select token holders, aspiring to foster community cohesion and collaboration within the Web3 sphere. Jason Lau, chief innovation officer of OKX, expressed enthusiasm for the collaboration, noting OKX Wallet's role as a premier gateway to explore the burgeoning realm of Web3 gaming, culture and entertainment experiences. Likewise, Eric Anziani, president and chief operating officer of Crypto.com, underscored the commitment of Crypto.com DeFi Wallet to democratizing access to the realms of DeFi and Web3 for all users, stating the partnership with Mocaverse would extend these experiences to a broader audience. Additional announcementIn a separate announcement, Mocaverse unveiled a similar partnership with cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin alongside Halo Wallet. The initiative endeavors to address the challenge of accessing benefits across distinct Web3 sub-ecosystems by establishing cross-platform identity links, ultimately enhancing the user experience and fostering greater collaboration and integration across partner offerings.Halo Wallet CEO Jeff Hou shared his thoughts on the collaboration, stating:“The partnership among Halo, KuCoin, and Mocaverse is more than just a fusion of services; it represents a strategic alliance to create a cohesive digital asset environment for our users. The initiation of this exceptional cross-platform alliance is a move that promises to bring together the best of what each party has to offer.” 

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.