Atomic Wallet Publishes Post-Attack ‘Full Event Statement’, Binance Brazil Director May be Summoned by Parliament, Ripple Gets In-principle Approval for Singapore Digital Payment License

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Security news

• Decentralized wallet provider Atomic Wallet released an “event statement” about the June exploit, claiming that “less than 0.1%” of app users were affected and that there have been no new confirmed cases since the June 3 attack. It didn’t say what exactly led to the exploit, instead providing four most “probable” causes: virus targeting local users’ devices, infrastructure breach, malware code injection, or a man-in-the-middle attack. The team added that “none of the possible issues are confirmed as potentially causing massive breaches, at least in the latest Atomic app versions.”

Regulation news

• A member of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies requested that Guilherme Haddad, the director of Binance Brazil, be summoned to appear before the Brazilian Parliament as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged pyramid schemes. Deputy Alfredo Gaspar alleged that Binance was used by these types of organizations for asset transfers. This comes as the exchange is facing regulatory scrutiny worldwide. 
• California-based start-up Ripple announced that its Singapore subsidiary Ripple Markets APAC Pte Ltd obtained In-Principle Approval of the Major Payments Institution License application from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). This license will allow Ripple to offer regulated digital payment token products and services in the city-state, and scale its customers’ use of its crypto-enabled On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service, the company said. 
• CACEIS, Crédit Agricole and Santander‘s asset servicing arm, gained approval to provide crypto custody services in France. The asset servicing bank was registered by the country’s Financial Markets Authority (AMF) on June 20.

NFT news

• Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), launched a dog-themed nonfungible token (NFT) collection with an on-chain treasure hunt to recruit cyber talent. According to the website, users can collect the NFTs by finding a character string posted on Instagram, which points to an Ethereum address. They would then use the information they gained to find the collection and be eligible to mint an NFT. The collection consists of 999 NFTs, 987 of which are available immediately upon release.

Mining news

• Bitcoin (BTC) miners in Texas, USA, curbed operations, crimping power usage, as a heat wave drove electricity prices sky-high on Tuesday and threatened to cripple the grid, according to Bloomberg. The extent of the intentional shutdown and the amount of power conserved for other uses was not yet immediately clear. 

Adoption news

• Bakkt Holdings released findings from its Consumer Crypto Sentiment Study of more than 2,000 US consumers who own crypto or are interested in crypto, finding that, despite crypto market turmoil, overall purchase considerations held steady at 84%. Interest amongst the Crypto Curious waned to 27%, down 11 percentage points from October 2022. Overall, 48% of participants said their interest in purchasing crypto hasn’t changed, and 30% reported an increase in interest.

Career news

• Fidelity-backed Eight Roads Ventures hired Nao Kitazawa, former CEO of Coinbase Japan, as a venture partner. Kitazawa said he was “thrilled to share” that he joined the company “to pursue my love for Fintech and Web3.” Eight Roads is an investor in crypto firms, and it manages assets worth over $11 billion.