Another DeFi protocol fell victim to a smart contract hack only a day after the Ronin Network was compromised. Bitcoin whales have accumulated nearly $23 billion worth of BTC in the last month and MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor likened a strategic Bitcoin reserve to the United States Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
DeFi protocol Nexera hacked for $1.5 million via smart contract exploit
Nexera protocol has been exploited for $1.5 million worth of digital assets in another smart contract security incident.
Nexera, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol aiming to bridge DeFi with traditional finance, was hacked for $1.5 million worth of Nexera (NXRA) tokens, according to an Aug. 7 X post by Cyvers:
“Our system has detected a suspicious transaction involving your proxy contract. An address took ownership of your proxy contract and upgraded it. Shortly after, the address used the withdraw admin function to transfer all the $NXRA tokens.”
While the $1.5 million counts as a relatively small incident, it comes only a day after Ronin Network was exploited for $9.8 million worth of Ether (ETH) tokens by a suspected white hat hacker, who returned all the lost funds within a few hours.
This isn’t the first malicious incident caused by the exploiter, according to onchain data.
The exploiter’s addresses are connected to previous private key compromises as well, according to onchain investigator ZachXBT, who wrote in an Aug. 7 Telegram post:
“Attacker is connected on-chain to recent private key compromise incidents such as SpaceCatch, Concentric Finance, OKX DEX, Serenity Shield, Reach, and many more.”
Bitcoin whales bought $23 billion worth of BTC in the last 30 days
A special class of Bitcoin (BTC) holders, referred to as “permanent holder addresses,” have accumulated nearly $23 billion of the asset over the past month, according to data from blockchain analytics platform CryptoQuant.
In an Aug. 6 post to X, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju shared that 404,448 BTC, worth $22.8 billion at current prices, had moved into permanent holder addresses over the past 30 days, adding that it’s “clearly” a sign of growing accumulation.
Ki added that expects traditional financial institutions, companies, governments “will announce that they’ve acquired Bitcoin in Q3 2024,” adding that retail investors would “regret not buying [Bitcoin] because they were worried about the German govt selling, Mt. Gox, or whatever macroeconomic shit was going on.”
A “Louisiana Purchase moment” for the US
In an Aug. 6 interview with CNBC, Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor said acquiring a “strategic reserve” of BTC would represent another “Louisiana Purchase moment” for the United States.
“Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory for $15 million in 1803 and nearly doubled the size of the United States,” Saylor explained. “Bitcoin is scarce, desirable digital property. It’s a great idea to trade a little bit of currency or paper for someplace that billions of people are gonna want to be in 100 years.”
Saylor made headlines at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, where he forecasted Bitcoin’s price to reach up to $13 million per coin by 2045. His company continues to acquire Bitcoin at a rapid pace and currently owns roughly $8 billion worth of BTC.
Saylor believes the US government should add Bitcoin to its strategic reserve, even endorsing Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis’ proposed BITCOIN ACT. The proposal seeks for the US Treasury to gradually accumulate 1 million BTC or nearly 5% of the digital asset’s total supply.