At block height 11,234,873, the Ethereum blockchain has suffered an unintended hard fork that split its blockchain into two. The split occurred due to a code change that was inserted into a previous update, which was ignored by some node operators.

Johnny Lyu, co-founder and CEO of the hacked Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin, has revealed the trading platform recovered 84% of the assets that were stolen from it back in September.

A total of $7.6 billion worth of cryptocurrencies have been stolen by hackers and scammers since 2011, according to a new report published by Amsterdam-based blockchain analytics firm Crystal Blockchain.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Ethereum Suffers Unintended Chain Split
• Hacked Crypto Exchange KuCoin Has Recovered Most of the Stolen Funds
• $7.6 Billion Worth of Cryptocurrencies Have Been Stolen Since 2011
• SAND, OMG, DASH Are Moving in the Crypto Market

Ethereum Suffers Unintended Chain Split

At block height 11,234,873, the Ethereum blockchain has suffered an unintended hard fork that split its blockchain into two. The split occurred due to a code change that was inserted into a previous update, which was ignored by some node operators.

The Go Ethereum (Geth) nodes that did not upgrade to include the new code believed the update was minor, and did not know it included a change to Ethereum’s consensus itself. This saw a number of third-party services, including decentralized finance applications and cryptocurrency exchanges, halt deposits and withdrawals.

The nodes that did not upgrade ended up being in a minority chain, and as users started interacting with two versions of the Ethereum blockchain with conflicting transaction histories, it became clear the network had split.

The update, it’s worth noting, was meant to fix a bug that Ethereum’s developers silently patched. The outage was resolved after affected services updated their nodes.

Hacked Crypto Exchange KuCoin Has Recovered Most of the Stolen Funds

Johnny Lyu, co-founder and CEO of the hacked Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin, has revealed the trading platform recovered 84% of the assets that were stolen from it back in September.

KuCoin suffered a major security breach in September, in which a hacker managed to access its hot wallets and steal over $280 million worth of cryptocurrencies. The hacker is believed to have stolen over $147 million in various ERC-20 tokens, $87 million in Stellar tokens, and $30 million in bitcoin.

On social media, Lyu revealed that through “approaches like on-chain tracking, contract upgrade and judicial recovery” the trading platform has now recovered 84% of the funds stolen from it. At the request of law enforcement, it will only publish all of the case’s details once it’s closed.

He added that KuCoin has resumed services for 176 tokens and plans on resuming services for all remaining assets before November 22. It’s worth noting that after the KuCoin hack was made public, several projects with affected tokens quickly moved to either freeze or recover the funds.

$7.6 Billion Worth of Cryptocurrencies Have Been Stolen Since 2011

A total of $7.6 billion worth of cryptocurrencies have been stolen by hackers and scammers since 2011, according to a new report published by Amsterdam-based blockchain analytics firm Crystal Blockchain.

The report found $2.8 billion were stolen through a security breach, with the most popular type of breach being via a cryptocurrency trading platform’s systems. The largest breach was that of Coincheck, in which over $500 million worth of NEM were stolen.

$4.8 billion were reportedly stolen through scams, with the firm identifying 23 prominent fraud schemes. Kyrylo Chykhradze, a product director of Crystal Blockchain, said:

“We deemed $7.6 billion as the total amount for all the years combined in one sum. Basically a cumulative sum for the last 10 years.”

In terms of value stolen, China led because of the 2019 PlusToken Ponzi, which stole $2.9 billion, along with the 2020 WoToken scam, which stole $1 billion. The latter is believed to be connected to PlusToken.

SAND, OMG, DASH Are Moving in the Crypto Market

There are several tokens leading the charge in the last 24-hour period. Some of these are well-known cryptocurrencies with rather liquid trading pairs, so we’ll be focusing on these over low-cap cryptos who may have higher percentage changes.

The Sandbox (SAND) – The Sandbox’s SAND token has moved up 10.7% in the last 24 hours. The Sandbox’s blockchain gaming platform has seen leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance acquire LAND tokens within it to host social gaming events, boosting its popularity.

OMG Network (OMG) - OmiseGO is building a decentralized exchange, liquidity provider mechanism, clearinghouse messaging network, and asset-backed blockchain gateway. OMG is up by 5.78% in the last 24 hours.

Dash (DASH) – Dash, short for digital cash, is designed to offer financial freedom to everyone through instant, easy, and secure payments with near-zero fees. Users can purchase goods with DASH at thousands of merchants and trade it at major exchanges and brokers around the globe. The token is up 7.8% in the last 24 hours.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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