Source: AdobeStock / Dang

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

In this edition:

Over 385 Million USDT on Ethereum Stolen via Pig Butchering in Just Two Years
MoonPay Launches MoonPay Checkout
Which Bitcoin Miners Will Face Most Uncertainty Post-Halving?
KuCoin Labs and Zoopia Partner to Advance Bitcoin Ecosystem

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Over 385 Million USDT Stolen via Pig Butchering in Two Years

More than $385 million have been stolen in just two years via pig butchering scams, according to BestBrokers.

The team decided to analyze the amount of stolen USDT on the Ethereum mainnet for the past two years via these scams.

They measured the magnitude of the most “easily trackable” scams and ran several raw queries on the Dune Analytics platform. They determined the amount of USDT transactions made to known scam addresses on Ethereum.

BestBrokers established that although the amount stolen per quarter has been decreasing since the Q2 2023 surge, the overall amount stolen via pig butchering already exceeds 385 million USDT.

While the first reported transaction was made in September 2021, the number of reported scams kept surging throughout the last two years, it said. The first notable decline was observed in Q3 2023.

This drop could be a result of the sustained efforts of Southeast Asia’s governments to crack down on the scammers.

BestBrokers’ crypto analyst Alan Goldberg commented that “the fact that $385 million was stolen through Pig Butchering scams over such a short period is terrifying. Let’s not forget this is the data for a single cryptocurrency on a single blockchain. If we were able to track all the scam transactions across all blockchains, the magnitude would be way larger. It may even match the amount siphoned by the DeFi hackers.”

Source: BestBrokers

MoonPay Launches MoonPay Checkout

Crypto payments infrastructure firm MoonPay announced its MoonPay Checkout, described as “the improved four-click checkout process that makes it a breeze for your users to buy digital collectibles in seconds.”

This is an enhanced version of MoonPay’s non-fungible token (NFT) purchasing widget, which is already trusted by OpenSea, Magic Eden, ENS, and Sweet.io, it said.

Features and benefits include high converting, with a 90% checkout success rate; extensive blockchain support with more than 40 chains supported; ability to adapt MoonPay Checkout’s look to fit a brand or marketplace; 100% protection against chargebacks and fraud; and wallet-free checkout.

It additionally includes an opportunity to earn additional income through affiliate fees, Google and Apple account integrations for user convenience, and the ability to mint multiple quantities of NFTs in a single transaction.

Which Bitcoin Miners Will Face Most Uncertainty Post-Halving?

Certain large miners will have to reduce their hashcost if they don’t won’t to deal with uncertainty after the Bitcoin (BTC) halving, according to a Miner Weekly report by BlocksBridge Consulting.

Bitcoin’s hashprice set new yearly highs above $130/PH/s over the past week, the report said. This happened as mining companies reap an increasing amount of block rewards from transaction fees.

The incoming halving will bring a massive change. If the hashprice remains constant at $110/PH/s through April, it will be reduced to $55/PH/s right after the halving (expected on April 23).

Given that Bitcoin’s average hashprice in Q3 was around $70/PH/s, most companies were okay. “But those on the higher end of the scale will face much more uncertainty post-halving if they don’t reduce their hashcost,” the report said.

It added that “reducing the hashcost by improving fleet efficiency and/or securing lower energy rates is hence paramount as the halving looms. That explains why we’re in the middle of an arms race among mining companies for the next generation of miners.”

The new hashcost metric was revealed by TheMinerMag to evaluate the competitiveness of mining companies.

The chart below maps out the estimated average daily hashcost of mining companies in Q3.

Source: TheMinerMag

KuCoin Labs and Zoopia Partner to Advance Bitcoin Ecosystem

KuCoin Labs, the investment VC arm of the KuCoin ecosystem, and Zoopia, a platform dedicated to bitcoin ecosystem staking, have joined forces to advance the Bitcoin ecosystem, according to the press release.

The strategic partnership aims to revolutionize the way users interact with BRC tokens, the companies said.

Zoopia wants to create an ecosystem where users securely stake BRC20 tokens, earn rewards, and participate in auto-compounding processes.

“KuCoin Labs will support Zoopia as it continues to achieve its key milestones, including product launches, market expansion, and user experience enhancements,” said Lou Yu, Head of KuCoin Labs.

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