In today’s cryptocurrency, Balancer DAO has given the hackers behind the exploit until Saturday to return the stolen funds as a reward. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan is considering converting some of its national assets and gold reserves into digital assets, with new research from Schwab showing that 45% of ETF investors plan to buy crypto ETFs.
Balancer makes final appeal to hackers behind over $100 million exploit
The Balancer Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) this week issued on-chain notifications to wallet owners behind an exploit in which more than $100 million in digital assets were stolen.
In a Friday X post, Balancer posted a copy of a message it sent to an individual or group responsible for an incident involving the platform’s V2 composable stable pool. The decentralized exchange offered to return the funds in exchange for an unspecified reward by Saturday, or else use “technical, on-chain, and legal means” to pursue the matter.
“We understand that affected users are waiting for further updates,” Ballance said of the exploit. “We will continue to provide information as the investigation progresses.”
The exploit, which Balancer reported to users on Monday, moved over $100 million worth of Staked Ether (ETH), including StakeWise Staked ETH (OSETH), Wrapped Ether (WETH), and Lido wstETH (wSTETH), to newly created wallets. The hack drew attention to exchange smart contract audits, following reports that four security firms reviewed smart contracts.
Kazakhstan Could Increase Cryptocurrency Reserves by $1 Billion in Gold, Forex and Seized Assets
The Kazakh government is reportedly considering converting some of its state fund assets, as well as some of its gold and foreign exchange reserves, to fund virtual currency reserves.
According to the Central Asia Times, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan Berik Sholpankurov announced the initiative at a recent parliament session. A report in Bloomberg Law on Friday suggested the government aims to allocate between $500 million and $1 billion for the effort.
“I think it will be operational by the end of the year, by January of next year,” Sholpankurov said, according to Bloomberg. Sholpankurov added that the creation of a government-controlled crypto asset fund is being discussed among government officials. “We are considering the possibility of using some of the assets of the State Fund, gold and foreign exchange reserves to invest in crypto assets,” he said.
A central bank official said the confiscated assets would be “transferred to the national digital asset fund” to be “kept in the government’s strategic stockpile.” He also said the Ministry of Digital Development is proposing to allow state-owned companies to supply energy to private cryptocurrency mining companies in exchange for cryptocurrencies.
Nearly half of ETF investors plan to purchase crypto ETFs
Nearly half of exchange-traded fund (ETF) investors plan to buy crypto ETFs, matching those who said they would buy bond ETFs, according to a study released Thursday by Schwab Asset Management.
Schwab found that of the 2,000 individual ETF investors surveyed, 52% plan to invest in U.S. stock ETFs, while 45% said they were interested in crypto ETFs, tied for second place with investors interested in U.S. bond ETFs.
“It was also shocking to see cryptocurrencies tied for second place with bonds as people’s investment destination,” said Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg. “Considering that cryptocurrencies represent 1% of the ETF’s total assets under management, it primarily punches above its weight.” [assets under management] Bonds, on the other hand, are at 17%. ”
Approximately 57% of Millennial respondents said they plan to invest in cryptocurrencies through ETFs, compared to 41% of Gen X respondents and 15% of Baby Boomers.
Balciunas said that overall, “the whole survey is very optimistic” about ETFs, and that “basically everyone is planning to increase their usage,” especially younger generations.