A User Just Lost $240,000 in NFTs on the Blur Marketplace
A user has been drained of their non-fungible tokens, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in a phishing scam on the Blur marketplace.

An unfortunate user has been drained of their non-fungible tokens, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, in a sophisticated phishing scam on the Blur marketplace.

The loss, reported by 0xQuit on X, formerly Twitter, involved six Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, 40 Beanz, and three Elementals, all listed at one wei each — effectively zero.

Based on current floor prices for each asset, the total sum amounts to roughly $239,676. Wei is the smallest unit of ether on the Ethereum blockchain.
The scam was orchestrated by an unknown entity, who exploited a loophole in Blur’s listing system to enable private sales, 0xQuit, a Solidity developer and auditor, said in a separate post.

Despite Blur's standard policy of not supporting private listings, the scammer managed to manipulate the royalty settings of the NFTs, bypassing the public accessibility requirement.

Typically, if a scammer tricks someone into listing an NFT for nearly nothing, automated bots quickly buy it by paying higher fees, leavin

Germany Moves Another $28 Million in Bitcoin to Bitstamp, Coinbase
The German government moved 250 BTC each to the two crypto exchanges, with a further 500 BTC sent to an unidentified address.The German government continued to move Bitcoin from its holdings to crypto exchanges Monday morning, transferring BTC worth over $28 million to Coinbase and Bitstamp.

Addresses linked to the German government by crypto analytics firm Arkham moved 250 BTC each to Coinbase and Bitstamp. A further 500 BTC worth $28 million was also sent to an unidentified address.
Per an Arkham Intelligence dashboard, the German government's Bitcoin holdings amount to 38,826 BTC seized as a result of criminal cases, worth over $2.23 billion at current prices. The bulk of its holdings were seized in January as the result of a piracy sting, when Bitcoin was trading at around $46,000.
In recent days, the German government has been offloading its Bitcoin through crypto exchanges, prompting the price of Bitcoin to plunge to lows of under $55,000 and wreaking havoc on the wider crypto markets. At time of publication, the price of Bitcoin has recovered to around $57,590, trading flat on the day.

Japan's Metaplanet Scoops More Bitcoin Amid Sluggish Economic Growth

Publicly traded Metaplanet Inc. has bought an additional 42 Bitcoin, valued at $2.4 million, as Japan's economy faces significant headwinds.

Publicly traded Metaplanet Inc. has scooped up 42 additional Bitcoin valued at 400 million yen ($2.4 million), defying shifting crypto market sentiment amid additional selling pressure from major entities.

The Tokyo-based firm's latest acquisition is part of a move to bolster its crypto, bringing the company’s total Bitcoin holdings to 203 BTC, according to a public disclosure statement on Sunday.

Last month, the firm established a wholly-owned subsidiary, Metaplanet Capital Limited, as part of its strategic initiative to enhance its Bitcoin holdings and capitalize on international growth opportunities.

Metaplanet's purchase comes at a time when Japan continues to grapple with decades-long economic challenges.

The yen's exchange rate has steadily declined, dropping to 160.96 against the U.S. dollar and 173.81 against the euro. It represents the yen's weakest level against the dollar since 1986 and its lowest value against the euro on record.

This Week in Crypto Games: Bitcoin GTA 6 Rumors, Moonray Hits Epic Store, Telegram Tap-to-Earn Upgrade

The crypto and NFT gaming space is busier than ever lately, what with prominent games starting to release, token airdrops piling up, and a seemingly constant array of other things happening at all times. It’s a lot to take in!

Luckily, Decrypt’s GG is all over it. And if you need a quick way to get caught up on the latest moves around crypto video games, we’re happy to present This Week in Crypto Games.

Our weekend roundup serves up the biggest news from the past week, along with a few other tidbits you might have missed. We also showcase a few of our original stories from the week.

Bitcoin in GTA 6 rumors: Rumors that the widely anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 will utilize cryptocurrency started to bubble up more than a year after first appearing. On Wednesday, a pseudonymous Crypto Twitter influencer called Gordon shared to his nearly 500,000 followers that “GTA 6 will enable cryptocurrency payments,” and that “so far only Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT [are] confirmed.”

EigenLayer users fume over restrictive airdrop, others say it’s ‘generous

Users who felt left out of the recently announced Eigenlayer airdrop have lashed out at the restaking protocol’s Monday announcement — highlighting its non-transferable token structure, aggressive geo-restrictions, and an apparently short snapshot period.

Eigenlayer — the second largest protocol with $ 15.67 billion in total value locked (TVL) — unveiled the specifics of its long-expected “stakedrop” in an April 29 blog post.

Despite the protocol never officially confirming an airdrop until Monday, speculators seemed to be more than fine with adding their already-staked Ether (ETH) to Eigenlayer — adding more than $ 15.7 billion to the protocol since its inception — hoping to receive an airdrop at some point in the future.
In its announcement, Eigen Foundation shared that it would allocate 15% of EIGEN’s total supply of 1.67 billion tokens to the community, however, only 5% of the initial would be allocated to early users who participated in Season One. The remaining allocation would be distributed to users in the following ‘seasons.’

Some users protested that this was a relatively small allocation and claimed the documents detailing airdrop allocations were “confusing”
Untransferrable tokens and linear distribution
However, stakedrop critics directed the bulk of their ire at the fact that while users could claim their EIGEN tokens starting from March 10, they would not be able to transfer or sell them until an undisclosed date.

The Eigen Foundation wrote that this control was put in place to ensure that key features including payments and slashing parameters were “well established” before EIGEN became transferable among users.

Bitcoin Mining Stocks Surge on Nasdaq Ahead of Bitcoin’s Fourth Halving Event

Riot Platforms (RIOT) led with a 10.13% increase in its share price to $ 9.13 on April 19, following the announcement of a new 250-acre mining facility in Corsicana, Texas.

Several Bitcoin mining companies listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange experienced notable gains in their share prices this past trading week, particularly in the 24 hours leading up to Bitcoin’s fourth halving event on April 20.

This event, critical to the operations of Bitcoin mining firms, cuts the reward for mining each block by half—from 6 BTC to 3.125 BTC.

As anticipation built, stock investors speculated about which companies might emerge as leaders in the industry.

This speculation resulted in significant price surges for some firms.

The challenges facing the industry were underscored by Hut 8 CEO Asher Gennot, who noted that several Bitcoin mining companies faced bankruptcy in 2022 due to overleveraging and high energy costs.

In response, major Bitcoin miners, including Marathon Digital, have been proactive; Marathon recently announced the acquisition of a 200-megawatt Bitcoin mining facility in Texas for $ 87.3 million.

Additionally, Riot Platforms made a significant investment in December 2023, purchasing 66,560 mining rigs from MicroBT in one of the firm’s largest expansions.

While Bitcoin mining firms enjoyed a day of gains, the broader S&P 500 index did not fare as well, recording a 0.88% decrease over 24 hours and a total decline of 3.54% over the last five trading days, according to Google Finance data.

These fluctuations underscore the volatile nature of both the cryptocurrency and stock markets as firms navigate the new landscape post-halving.

Riot Platforms (RIOT) led with a 10.13% increase in its share price to $ 9.13 on April 19, following the announcement of a new 250-acre mining facility in Corsicana, Texas.

The same day, Jason Les, CEO of Riot Platforms, had the honor of ringing the closing bell at Nasdaq headquarters.

Close behind was Marathon Digital (MARA), which saw a 9.78% jump to $ 16.50. Clean Spark (CLSK) also enjoyed a rise, with shares up 5.98% to $ 17.20.

PayPal Enables Stablecoin-To-Fiat Option for International Money Payments

Users can now swap PYUSD for dollars to make international payments via Xoom.

Payment company PayPal today announced that customers in the U.S. can now use its stablecoin to fund international payments.
In a Thursday press release, the company explained that customers can now convert PayPal USD (PYUSD) to dollars and then send money to "recipients in approximately 160 countries"—with no fees—via its Xoom payment platform.

PayPal's PYUSD is a virtual token running on Ethereum. It is also a dollar-pegged stablecoin, backed by cash equivalents and short-term treasuries. PayPal launched PYUSD last year, and Paxos Trust Co. issued the token.PayPal's SVP of the blockchain, cryptocurrency, and digital currency group, Jose Fernandez da Ponte, said that the move "builds on our goal of driving mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies."

"When we decided to bring PayPal USD to market, we had two objectives we wanted to achieve: create something that had a stable value to maximize user confidence and ensure it had utility for commerce and payments," he added.

A stablecoin is a digital asset pegged to something stable—in this case, the U.S. dollar. Such tokens do not go up and down in value as much as Bitcoin or Ethereum.

In the crypto world, they are largely used by people to exit transactions when they don't immediately have access to fiat currencies held in a traditional bank, speeding up the trading experience.

SEC Moves to Sue Uniswap; Early Ethereum Advisor Sues US Government

SEC Moves to Sue Uniswap; Early Ethereum Advisor Sues US Government
Table of Contents
Uni-SEC'd
The US vs. the ETH
Opportunity is abundant in crypto but so are lawsuits. As always, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is busying itself with dishing out lawsuits but the US government has also found itself on the receiving end of one.
On Wednesday, the SEC told Uniswap it is taking legal action against the firm. Meanwhile, a former Ethereum advisor, Steven Nerayoff, has filed a $ 9.6 billion lawsuit against the government.
Uni-SEC'd
In a blog, Uniswap Labs said the SEC has issued a warning against the firm in the form of a Wells Notice, which is usually sent ahead of launching a formal lawsuit. Coinbase and BUSD issuer Paxos are among the increasing list of crypto firms that have received such notices.
The reasons behind the SEC's warning are not clear but Uniswap has been under the regulator's microscope for quite some time. In the blog post, Uniswap refutes the SEC's definition of a token as a security.

"Despite SEC rhetoric that "most" tokens are securities, the reality is that tokens are a digital file format, like a pdf or spreadsheet, and can store many kinds of value," Uniswap states. "They are not intrinsically securities, just as every sheet of paper is not a stock certificate. The overwhelming volume of traded tokens are definitively not securities – they are stablecoins, community and utility tokens, and commodities like Ethereum and Bitcoin.

"And tokens traded on secondary markets like Uniswap are not investment contracts. In the circumstance where a token may represent a security, the SEC has refused to create a path for businesses to register."

Uniswap pointed towards the SEC's battle with Coinbase as part of its defence. Taking into account the SEC's ongoing lawsuits against Coinbase and others as well as their complete unwillingness to provide clarity or a path to registration to those operating lawfully within the U.S., we can only conclude that this is the latest political effort to target even the best actors building technology on blockchains," it stated.