An improbable cold storage hack, celebrities using crypto, a growing crypto job market, and Bakkt to the futures.
Here is the news you are waking up to for October 23, 2018:
$7.8 million Disappears from Trade.io’s Cold Storage
The Switzerland-based crypto platform Trade.io has reported that 50 million of its TIO tokens – with an approximate value of $7.8 million USD – have been inappropriately accessed.
Per a press release published Sunday, Trade.io noticed unusual trading activity with its TIO trading pairs with the crypto exchange platforms Bancor and Kucoin. After asking the affected exchanges to pause TIO withdrawals and deposits, it was found that 1.3 million tokens each were sent to be traded on Bancor and Kucoin. The tokens affected came from Trade.io’s liquidity pool, which was reportedly held in a cold storage wallet.
Bancor has since delisted TIO, while Kucoin has maintained the pause on deposits and withdrawals. Trade.io has halted all TIO trading.
A hack of a cold storage wallet has little precedent. Cold storage wallets are wallets where the private keys have been segregated to external storage away from the blockchain or internet access. Typically, cold storage wallets are stored on removable flash drives. Hacking a cold storage wallet typically requires having physical access to the wallet.
Per Trade.io, proper cold storage protocols were practiced, including placing the hardware wallets in bank safety deposit boxes. Trade.io has confirmed that the deposit boxes were not touched in any way.
Early rumors have suggested that the North Korean hacker group Lazarus, which is tied to more than $500 million in crypto theft this year, may be responsible. But that may just be because the group is already in the news.
Considering this security blindside, some are taking humor in Trade.io’s slogan: “A revolutionary crypto exchange and modern financial services firm focused on blockchain technology, providing the ultimate in security and transparency.”
Johnny Depp Gets TaTaTu’d
From the “where did that come from?” file: A-list film actor Johnny Depp has announced he will be working with crypto social entertainment platform TaTaTu. Per the Hollywood Reporter, Depp will be working with TaTaTu – via his Infinitum Nihil production company – to produce films and digital content. TaTauT is being run by Andrea Iervolino, the co-head of AMBI Media Group.
The partnership’s first project will be Waiting for the Barbarians, which will star Depp, Mark Rylance, and Robert Pattinson. Among other projects on TaTatu’s to-do list is a biopic of Ferruccio Lamborghini slated to star Antonio Banderas and Alec Baldwin; a Jeremy Renner documentary; and the Jim Caviezel and Mira Sorvino-fronted film The Sound of Freedom.
“In this era of democratized entertainment, I admire the imaginative ethos of Andrea and look forward to collaborating together in a liberating, progressive manner that will befit the principals of our respective entities,” said Depp.
TaTaTu closed a massive $575 million pre-sale this summer, according to the company. The platform rewards viewers with TTU tokens for watching content, so TaTaTu is hoping people still care about names like Depp and Sorvino. If not, they may need to find new jobs. Good news on that front…
Crypto Job Market Continues to Grow, Despite Bearish Market
A new report from Glassdoor suggests there is growing demand for talent in crypto, despite sluggish coin prices. In the United States, job openings have increased 300 percent from last year.
As of August 2018, Glassdoor found 1,775 jobs that included the term “bitcoin,” “cryptocurrency,” or “blockchain,” up from 446 jobs a year prior. Furthermore, the median salary for these jobs is $84,884 per year, or 61.8 percent above the US median salary of $52,461. Most of these jobs were technical in nature.
The report attributes the high salaries, in part, to the fact that most blockchain jobs are based in cities with a high cost-of-living, like New York and San Francisco. ConsenSys and IBM lead the job openings list at 214 each. Coinbase follows with 63, and Figure, Oracle, and Kraken round out the top six with 37 jobs each.
Launch Date for Bakkt Platform’s Bitcoin Futures Revealed
Per a document released by the New York Stock Exchange’s parent company, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the Bakkt Bitcoin (USD) Daily Futures Contracts will be listed for trading on December 12, 2018.
Bakkt is ICE’s platform for trading, storing, and spending crypto assets. The news that ICE will be involved in the selling of bitcoin futures mean that the operator of the nation’s premier financial market will be physically settling and clearing bitcoin futures for trade with its institutional and retail customers. The futures will be sold in US dollars terms, with one daily contract being listed for trade each exchange business day.
Bakkt will not allow margin trading of bitcoin contracts or leverage positioning. This is, according to the company, to promote better market integrity and price trust.
The Chicago Board Operations Exchange launched bitcoin futures in December of last year.
Be fast, be clever, be wise. Most importantly, be here tomorrow for your Daily Byte.
Frederick Reese is a politics and cryptocurrency reporter based in New York. He is also a former teacher, an early adopter of bitcoin and Litecoin, and an enthusiast of all things geeky and nerdy.
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