Lazarus hackers drop malware via Crypto job offers
Hello Fellaz,
A lot has happened over the past week, so let's dive right in and review the news of the past week in the NFT space!
PS: read the online version of our newsletter, and scroll down to this week's memes! They're hilarious πππ
β π©Έπ AMERICAN RADASS
QQL blocks the X2Y2 marketplace from transacting
QQL Mint Pass, a new project co-created by Fidenza creator Tyler Hobbs, earned around $17 million upon its launch.
QQL is a generative art algorithm that Hobbs and co-creator Dandelion Wist will publicly release. Owning a QQL Mint Pass token allows the holder to mint official art from that algorithm.Β The project has 999 total NFTs, with 99 of those reserved by the creators for βspecial purposes,β according to the QQL site.Β
Interestingly, the code in QQL Mint Pass blacklists the wallet address for X2Y2, negating any attempted transaction with the marketplace. The move appears to respond to last monthβs debate over whether NFT platforms should enforce artist royalties, in which some protocols such as X2Y2 and SudoAMM opted not to.
Solana Network Down Again
A misconfigured node caused the Solana network to stop processing transactions and go offline on Friday, the fourth major outage for the popular blockchain since January, when it had a string of partial outages for most of that month, according to data from Solana.
This outage comes one year after a nearly 18-hour outage last September. Meanwhile, the crushing crypto winter has sent SOL, the No. 9 coin by market cap, down 81% in 2022.
π° OTHER NEWS FROM THE PAST WEEK
NFT marketplace OpenSea has partnered with Warner Music Group, in an attempt to expand Web3 opportunities their artists.
Mr. Doodle spent 2 years doodling his entire house
A CryptoPunk NFT Sold for 3,300 ETH ($4.45 Million) earlier this week. The buyer bought the ETH in 2017, at $250.
World of Women's biggest event of the year, the WoW Gala, will be on December 1st, at Art Basel Miami.
The Azuki NFT collection was delisted on the leading NFT marketplace OpenSea, but has been reinstated after the marketplace discovered an error in their Trust & Safety flagging mechanism.
NFT marketplace OpenSea pays $200,000 bounty to two ethical hackers
ZachXBT alleges crypto influencer Lark Davis made over $1M dumping crypto projects on his followers.
Alexey Pertsev, a Tornado Cash developer arrested in August by Dutch authorities over allegations of facilitating money laundering, is to stay in jail for at least another two months after his appeal was rejected.
Improbabble, the company which is creating Yuga Labs' Otherside virtual worlds, closed a $100m funding round despite recording a Β£152mn loss in 2021.
Defunct Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon has reportedly attempted to withdraw $69 million worth of Bitcoin shortly after an arrest warrant was issued in his name.
β¨ NEW IN THE SPACE
Hi, the crypto & fiat financial app, announced the worldβs first debit card featuring NFT avatar customization, powered by Mastercard.
Walmart enters the metaverse with Roblox experiences aimed at younger shoppers
MetaMask has launched the Beta for their portfolio Dapp, which "gives an improved Web3 experience"
German telco giant, Deutsche Telekom, announced its plans to run an Ethereum validator.
Robinhood said that the beta version of its Web3 wallet was now available.
Uniswap Labs rumored to be raising $100M in funding at a $1B valuation
Minteo, a Latin American-based NFT marketplace with a mission to introduce Web3 to the region, announced the closing of its $4.3 million seed round.
π HOW TO RECOGNIZE A RUG PULL
Crypto.com, a cryptocurrency exchange, has been the latest victim of a hacking group called Lazarus.
The malware campaign prompts crypto community members to download a PDF document for available job positions at Crypto.com, such as an Art Director position in Singapore.
When potential employees click on a link for a PDF job description, they are tricked into downloading malware that may steal their personal information and even bank details. In a separate operation, Lazarus sent direct message job offers on LinkedIn to people they hoped would be interested in working as Engineering Managers for Coinbaseβs Product Security teams.
π LEARN HOW TO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH
π LAUGH OUT LOUD
The memes this week were hilarious, these made us lolπ π π
But the funniest and most amazing video, is the one below - which documents how someone 'stole' art worth a million dollars.
π€ DISCLAIMER: NFA & DYOR
This newsletter is a curated overview of the most interesting things Iβve read the past week, the projects Iβve researched, and the NFTs Iβll be trying to buy.
This means Iβm - per definition - biased, so donβt consider this as financial advice, and keep doing your own research if you see something you like.