'Everything rally' is underway, says market strategist
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News AU
an hour ago
- Sky News AU
Ethereum the most popular category of ETFs in Australia after 57 per cent surge in July, while Bitcoin rises by 12 per cent
Bitcoin's growth was eclipsed by rival decentralised blockchain Ethereum in July as enthusiasm for exchange-traded funds surged among Australian traders. Global X on Thursday said it had posted its strongest month of flows on record in July, attracting $370 million in net inflows, with a significant amount going to US assets. The company's Senior Product and Investment Strategist Marc Jocum said confidence in US exceptionalism and artificial intelligence were two of the trend's key drivers. Ethereum, one of Bitcoin's main rivals, grew by 57 per cent in July, making it the best performing ETF on the Australian market. Bitcoin rose by 12 per cent during the same time period. In the US in July, Bitcoin ETFs experienced $6.3 billion in flows. Ethereum ETFs had flows of $5.5 billion.
News.com.au
18 hours ago
- News.com.au
$22.3 billion Bitcoin heist discovered five years later
Earlier this week, American cryptocurrency exchange platform Arkham revealed 127,426 Bitcoin was stolen from Chinese mining pool LuBian, worth a whopping $A5.4 billion ($US3.5b). The kicker? It happened in December 2020, and no one knew about it - until now. And now it's worth $A22.3 billion ($US14.5b). You may be wondering, how is this possible? First, since the incident and at the time of writing this, LuBian are still yet to release an official statement. In the last four and a half years, there have been no public announcements, no acknowledgments, not even a half-hearted PR-approved tweet. Second, the stolen funds were never moved after the hack. To this day, there has been no exchanging, no spending, no selling, no withdrawing. Essentially, aside from pulling off the biggest crypto hack in history, there's been no suspicious activity. According to Arkham, who were the first to disclose the theft, LuBian were first hacked on December 28th, 2020, for over 90 per cent of their BTC. Only a day later, on December 29th, 2020, around $A9.2 million ($US6m) of additional BTC and USDT was stolen from a LuBian active address operating on the Bitcoin Omni layer. To add icing on the cake, Arkham's investigation shows that LuBian had asked the hacker to return the funds. According to the cryptocurrency exchange company, LuBian spent 1.4 BTC across 1516 different transactions to send these messages. One message reads as such: 'OP_RETURN: through 1228btc@ to discuss the return of asset and your reward.' Another: 'OP_RETURN: MSG from LB. To the whitehat who is saving our asset, you can contact us.' A white hat hacker is an ethical security hacker, generally alerting those they have hacked of the vulnerability, typically for a reward. Companies will hire white hats to find security weaknesses in order to help safeguard their businesses from threats, such as those posed by more nefarious hackers. It was a valiant effort by LuBian but, unfortunately, the hacker in this case did not bite. The last known movement of the hacker was the consolidation of wallets in 2024. It suggests that the hacker may not be able to move the funds without risking exposing their identity, or perhaps is planning a long-term play. Arkham have suggested LuBian fell victim to the hack due to its private key generation system. LuBian's system used a 32-bit entropy. As a general rule, anything measuring less than 72 bits can be easily cracked by a machine. Anything higher than 75 is considered strong. LuBian's 32-bit entropy meant that the company was an easy target for brute force attacks, a hacking method that involves trying all possible combinations to gain unauthorised access. LuBian, which had facilities in China and Iran, reportedly controlled nearly 6 per cent of Bitcoin's total hash rate — which is the total computational power of all miners mining Bitcoin — in 2020, making it one of the world's largest mining pools. In that year, they were operating at full speed, and had achieved an impressive 16,200 BTC in nearly a year of mining. But in early 2021, LuBian stopped mining, which some reports argue could have been because of the massive breach. The attack, which is confirmed as the largest heist in BTC history, exposes the security risks of cryptocurrency wallets. It wasn't a fully fledged, hi-tech cyber attack. It was a calculated hack that took advantage of a security flaw.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
China did not ban crypto this week, so why does the internet say it did?
Any Google search related to China and crypto will be dominated by links to legitimate-looking but largely untrustworthy news sources, as well as social posts across X, Instagram and others claiming the country has made some impactful change. It's always worth remembering, especially if you're making financial decisions, to seek out verifiable sources. Loading The value of many cryptocurrencies did take a minor dip over the weekend, though the coins are so volatile, it's hard to say whether it's related to the fake news. Bitcoin fell by 1.05 per cent between Friday and Monday, and Ethereum took a harder tumble of 3.59 per cent, though quickly recovered on Monday. What is China's view on crypto? China has taken a decidedly anti-crypto stance over the past decade, though that hasn't seemed to dampen mainland activities related to the currencies. China controls the internet through IP-blocking, and controls access to apps by issuing take-down notices that Apple and local Android operators obey. It also has a large degree of control over its banking system. But VPNs and other technologies can effectively provide access to crypto trading in China, and most transactions are coin-to-coin so don't register in the banking system. Indeed, the continued use of crypto has caused various headaches for China. Local governments have seized large caches of currency after finding citizens trading illegally, and have reportedly begun selling it for cash, sparking corruption fears. And the acceleration of US government adoption has driven a push around Asia to adopt stablecoins – that is, cryptocurrencies with value pegged to a non-volatile currency or asset – including in the autonomous Chinese region of Hong Kong. Is there a Chinese stablecoin connected to the yuan? Not yet, but major players inside the country appear to be lobbying for one. Reuters reported last month that Chinese tech giants and Alibaba affiliate Ant Group were urging the central bank to authorise yuan-based stablecoins to counter the growing sway of US dollar-linked crypto. The idea is that China could allow the launch of stablecoins in Hong Kong, pegged to the yuan, in order to help promote global use of the Chinese currency and fend off the US dollar's growing digital influence. Despite its crypto trading ban, China appears to be warming to blockchain as a financial tool. People's Bank of China governor Pan Gongsheng said in June that stablecoins could revolutionise international finance, as rising geopolitical tensions highlight the fragility of traditional payment systems. What's next for crypto globally? Loading Donald Trump's 'Genius Act' will rush the creation of global coins tied to the US dollar, which could fundamentally change international trade. On the one hand, stablecoins can bring the benefit of decentralisation without the massive risk and volatility. On the other, they can be even more untraceable and open to fraud than physical notes. The US hopes the coins will create trillions of dollars worth of demand for Treasury bills, but they could also lead to a huge rise in tax evasion and other crime. Writing at the Washington Post, Harvard economics professor Kenneth Rogoff said the rise of a stablecoin tied to the US dollar could exacerbate international crimes like the drug trade, human trafficking and even terrorism, with the US being the only country to benefit.
