Around 51% of newly found blocks on the Ethereum blockchain are now following the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) compliance recommendations,  which means they are actively censoring transactions associated with mixing service Tornado Cash.

With $718 million being stolen from decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols this month alone, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis noted that at this rate “2022 will likely surpass 2021 as the biggest year for hacking on record.”

Avraham Eisenberg, who claims to be apart of the group that drained $114 million from Solana-based decentralized exchange Mango Markets, has returned $67 million to the DeFi platform after defending his actions as both legal and highly lucrative.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• 51% of Ethereum Blocks Are Complying With US Sanctions
• 2022 on Track to Be Crypto’s ‘Biggest Year for Hacking on Record’
• Mango Markets Exploiter Returns Most Stolen Funds
• Historical Monthly Top-Ter Spot Volumes

51% of Ethereum Blocks Are Complying With US Sanctions

Around 51% of newly found blocks on the Ethereum blockchain are now following the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) compliance recommendations,  which means they are actively censoring transactions associated with mixing service Tornado Cash.

These blocks are being delivered by relays that screen out transactions associated with the mixing service to comply with OFAC after it banned Americans from using Tornado Cash. Network validators use maximal extractable value (MEV) services to reorder transactions with a block to boost rewards.

Flashbots, an Ethereum-based research and development group, has been working on ways to curb the potential harms of MEV by building software that allows validators to request blocks from a network of builders via a middleman, called a relay.

The most popular relay is one built by Flashbots itself, which refuses to pass blocks containing transactions from sanctioned addresses. Out of five MEV-boosting relay providers, only two provide non-censoring options.

At the time of writing, 51% of blocks are enforcing OFAC compliance

Censorship at the protocol level is seen as a disadvantage, with the cryptocurrency community calling to keep “Ethereum credibly neutral.” Some have asked validators to “connect to non-censoring relays.”

2022 on Track to Be Crypto’s ‘Biggest Year for Hacking on Record’

With $718 million being stolen from decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols this month alone, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis noted that at this rate “2022 will likely surpass 2021 as the biggest year for hacking on record.”

The firm added:

“After four hacks yesterday, October is now the biggest month in the biggest year ever for hacking activity, with more than half the month still to go.”

So far this month, exploits include Temple DAO0s $2.3 million STAX exploit, and Solana-based decentralized trading platform Mango Markets’ $100 million exploit. Cross-chain bridges have been a significant target for hackers, with three bridges losing nearly $600 million this month.

Notably, BNB Chain’s bridge was the victim of a $100 million exploit this month, while earlier this year Wormhole’s bridge and Axie Infinity’s Ronin sidechain were also affected.

Mango Markets Exploiter Returns Most Stolen Funds

Avraham Eisenberg, who claims to be apart of the group that drained $114 million from Solana-based decentralized exchange Mango Markets, has returned $67 million to the DeFi platform after defending his actions as both legal and highly lucrative.

In a series of tweets Eisenberg, who has allegedly executed similar attacks in the past, acknowledged his role in the exploit and said he believes “all of our actions were legal.”

Mango Markets’ decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) is now set to vote on how to use the returned funds.

Historical Monthly Top-Ter Spot Volumes

In September, spot volume from the 15 largest Top-Tier exchanges increased by 13.8% compared to August, with total spot volumes of $904 billion.

Binance, (Grade AA) was the largest Top-Tier spot exchange by volume in September, seeing its trading volume rise 23.5% to $541 billion. It was followed by AAX (Grade BB) trading $71.1 billion after a 29.3% rise, and OKX (Grade BB), which traded $58.1 billion, up 8.26% from the previous month.

You can find out more via CryptoCompare’s latest Exchange Review.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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