The ‘Ledger hacker’ who siphoned away at least $484,000 from multiple Web3 apps on Dec. 14 did so by tricking Web3 users into making malicious token approvals, according to the team behind blockchain security platform Cyvers.

According to public statements made by multiple parties involved, the hack occurred on the morning of Dec. 14. The attacker used a phishing exploit to compromise the computer of a former Ledger employee, gaining access to the employee’s node package manager javascript (NPMJS) account.

We have identified and removed a malicious version of the Ledger Connect Kit.

A genuine version is being pushed to replace the malicious file now. Do not interact with any dApps…

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December’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting was a huge boon for markets. Risk assets — including cryptocurrencies — soared as the central bank appeared to take a more dovish stance on monetary policy. But the markets may be in for a nasty surprise in 2024 as the Federal Reserve faces an uphill battle against price increases, which may well force policymakers to hike again to reach their 2% inflation target.

The overwhelming expectation right now is that the Fed has won its battle against inflation. However, this is not what economic analysis shows. In fact, the recent slowdown in price growth is very likely to prove temporary — with inflation soaring again next month…

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The Interchain Foundation (ICF), a non-profit organization dedicated to driving growth in the Cosmos ecosystem, has allocated $26.4 million to fund Interchain Stack development and adoption in 2024. 

This amount is significantly less than in previous years. In the 2023 budget, the ICF planned to provide $40 million to the ecosystem, and in 2022 the foundation spent $54.1 million on ecosystem growth. 

Generally speaking, ICF Funding has been split into five core areas within the Cosmos ecosystem. These areas include consensus layer software CometBFT, the Cosmos software development kit (SDK), the Interblockchain Communication protocol (IBC), the smart contracting platform for…

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The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a nonprofit corporation that oversees regional organizations that support energy reliability, has released its annual long-term reliability assessment of the United States electrical grid. It identified large portions of the United States and Canada as high- or elevated-risk areas for energy reliability. Those areas included Texas, where the cryptocurrency mining industry is seeking to expand.

Both development and demand are rising “faster than at any time in the past five or more years.” New projects are being planned at a rate that challenges operator management, and the industry of facing pressure from mounting demands for…

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Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier addressed the “supply chain attack” on its Ledger ConnectKit in a post on Thursday.

“The standard practice at Ledger is that no single person can deploy code without review by multiple parties. We have strong access controls, internal reviews and multi-signature code when it comes to most parts of our development. This is the case in 99% of our internal systems. Any employee who leaves the company has their access revoked from every Ledger system,” Gauthier said. 

However, that was not the case on Thursday morning when a former employee was the subject of a phishing attack, giving the hacker an open door to Ledger’s package manager. It’s still…

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The self-regulatory trade association CryptoUK has reported roughly 5% of all Members of Parliament (MPs) in the United Kingdom have publicly spoken on crypto and blockchain, suggesting a lack of knowledge.

In a report released on Dec. 14, CryptoUK analyzed the sentiment of MPs between 2022 and 2023, finding that only 37 lawmakers specifically mentioned crypto and blockchain — 5.7% of the 650 members. Some of the top voices in the U.K. government in 2023, according to CryptoUK, included MP and former Economic Secretary Andrew Griffith and crypto proponent Lisa Cameron.

“It’s important that MPs from all parties and from all corners of the UK get to know the cryptoasset industry…

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A software engineer pleaded guilty to one count of computer fraud in connection with the hacking Nirvana Finance and an unnamed decentralized cryptocurrency exchange in the Southern District Court of New York on Dec. 14. The United States Attorney’s Office said the case was the first-ever conviction for hacking a smart contract.

Shakeeb Ahmed, described as a “senior security engineer for an international technology company,” was arrested in July in connection with the hack of the unnamed exchange on or about July 2 and 3, 2022. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office statement:

“AHMED carried out an attack on the Crypto Exchange by exploiting a vulnerability in one of the Crypto… Read more on Cointelegraph

The Nirvana Finance hacker pleaded guilty in New York on Thursday.

Shakeeb Ahmed was connected to two hacks — Nirvana and another decentralized exchange. In 2022, DeFi protocol Nirvana was hacked for roughly $3.5 million in a flash loan exploit.

The crypto exchange attacked by Ahmed was left unnamed in the press release announcing his guilty plea. However, when the US Department of Justice first announced the charges against Ahmed, Blockworks reported that the references matched an attack made on Crema Finance in July 2022.

As part of today’s plea, Ahmed forfeited $12.3 million. Nearly $6 million of the sum in crypto. 

The plea marks the first time that the DOJ convicted someone…

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Is US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler changing his tune?

In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Gensler said that the SEC is considering “between eight and a dozen filings” for a spot bitcoin ETF. (Most recently, Pando joined the race, marking 13 proposals for the SEC to field.) 

But in discussing the filings, he alluded to the SEC’s history of denials of these types of proposals. 

“We had in the past denied a number of these applications, but the courts here in the District of Columbia weighed in on that. And so we’re taking a new look at this based upon those court rulings,” Gensler said. 

Read more: Spot bitcoin ETF market sees new applicant ahead…

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