DPRK Strikes Again: WazirX $230M Exploit

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In Today's Email:

• What Matters: WazirX $230M+ exploit 🦹 

• Founders Highlight: Mert of Helius 👾

• Deal Flow: Morgan Creek wants $500M for new fund 💰️ 

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WHAT MATTERS

WazirX $230M+ Exploit

State of play: WazirX, a prominent Indian CEX, suffered a wallet exploit, resulting in the unauthorized transfer of over $230M in crypto assets.

• WazirX stated that the exploited multi-sig wallet was operated utilizing the services of Liminal's digital asset custody and wallet infrastructure.

• WazirX claimed the attack stemmed from a discrepancy between Liminal's interface data and the transaction's actual contents.

• Affected WazirX Wallet Address: 0x27fD43BABfbe83a81d14665b1a6fB8030A60C9b4

• ZachXBT and Elliptic stated that Lazarus Group (North Korea) could be the perpetrator.

• ZachXBT has successfully identified a KYC exchange deposit made by the WazirX hacker but claims that his finding might not be helpful as KYC-verified accounts can be easily purchased online.

Here is a list of the top 5 stolen assets by value in the WazirX exploit according to Lookonchain data:

• 5.43T $SHIB ($102M)

• 15,298 $ETH ($52.5M)

• 20.5M $MATIC ($11.24M)

• 640.27B $PEPE ($7.6M)

• $5.79M $USDT

Why it Matters: Each hack sets back crypto’s view in the eyes of everyday consumers and policymakers. The more we can prevent exploits, the better the industry will be seen.

For builders and investors: Never underestimate the importance of overfocusing and overspending on security.

• Sometimes, “redundancy by design” can be a good choice for centralized entities that hold customers’ money.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Mert Mumtaz of Helius

Intro: Mert Mumtaz is the co-founder and CEO of Helius, a developer platform for building on Solana. Mert is also the host of Blockworks’s podcast called Lightspeed. In January 2024, Mert founded Odyssey Ventures.

Previous background: Mert is a seasoned software engineer with experience at companies such as Blackberry, Shutterstock, Scotiabank, and Coinbase. Mert earned his Bachelor of Applied Science from Queen’s University.

• Mert dropped out from his Master’s study at Georgia Institute of Technology to pursue crypto full-time.

• Helius recently surpassed Coinbase and became the 2nd largest Solana validator, with 12,850,000 SOL staked.

The big idea: Mert, through Helius, wants to help developers build better, cheaper, and faster on Solana.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

INSIGHTS

How MOVE Language Can Prevent Hacks

Credits to Rushi Manche for the original tweet

State of play: Rushi Manche, the co-founder of Movement Labs, claims that Move (the programming language) could have prevented hacks on LI.FI, Curve, Kyber, and the recent attack on WazirX.

• Rushi said that Move enables strict access controls by implementing and consistently using whitelist checks within the smart contract. This ensures that only authorized addresses and functions can be called.

• He also claims that Move can ensure that resources or in this case the tokens cant be arbitrarily transferred via infinite approval processes.

• Rushi provided the code examples and said that the codes plus robust validation check with Move could prevent an attack.

DEAL FLOWS

Morgan Creek to Raise $500M+ for New Fund

Deal flows slowed down this week, we saw $49M+ in deals 💼 

Morgan Creek Digital (MCD) aims to raise up to $500M for a new fund targeting early-stage AI, blockchain, chips, and data opportunities.

The firm is engaging with sovereign and institutional investors, corporate officers, and industry experts in EMEA, Asia-Pacific, and the US to expand its regional footprint.

• MCD says the EMEA and APAC regions are going to be leaders in the future of technology.

• The new fund will invest in the "ABCDs" of Web3, targeting companies that combine AI, blockchain, chips, and data opportunities.

• MCD prefers investing in technology that overlaps sectors, like high-performance chips used for AI training or Bitcoin mining.

Deal flows in the past week:

• Truvius, $3.2M Pre-Seed Round

• DILL, Undisclosed $ Pre-Seed Round

• SkyTrade, Undisclosed $ Pre-Seed Round

• Bima Labs, $2.25M Seed Round

• PEXX, $4.5M Seed Round

• Mira, $9M Seed Round

• Haruko, $6M Series A

• Chainbase, $15M Series A

• Allium, $16.5M Series A

• RateX, Undisclosed $ Seed Round

• Akedo, Undisclosed $ Strategic Round

• Caliza, $8.5M Private Round

• Owito Finance, Undisclosed $ Private Round

QUICK BITES

• Lens targets Q4 for mainnet on ZKsync.

• LIFI publishes incident reports on the $12M hack.

• Kraken paid Dave Portnoy BTC in a sponsorship deal.

• Kraken expands institutional clients in the UK and AU.

• OKX will cease services in Nigeria by the end of August.

• WazirX hacker converts most siphoned assets into ETH.

• South Korea has started implementing its new crypto law.

• Polygon plans to migrate MATIC to POL on September 4th.

• BlockFi to begin crypto distributions via Coinbase this month.

• State Street mulls creating stablecoin and tokenized deposits.

• Winklevoss twins donate $1M in Bitcoin to Sen. Warren's rival.

• EigenLayer exodus leads to a wider decline in the restaking sector.

• Trump requests $844,600 for BTC conference attendees to join the roundtable.

NOTEWORTHY READS

• Decentralised’s read on attributions in crypto.

• Ethereum Foundation’s read on deep diving attestations.

• Vitalik’s read on against choosing your political allegiances based on pro-crypto.

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Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.