$7B stolen in crypto scams in 2021, RadioShack DeFi

The highest cryptocurrencies by market worth stay within the crimson this week.

Bitcoin is at the moment buying and selling at round $46,766, in accordance with Coin Metrics, and ether is buying and selling at round $3,880. Each are down round 6% within the final seven days.

However a couple of cryptocurrencies within the high 10 managed to resist the downturn. Terra’s LUNA is up over 29% within the final week and is now buying and selling at $80, in accordance with Coin Gecko. Avalanche’s AVAX can be up 29% in that time-frame and is at the moment buying and selling at $113.

Together with value motion, listed below are 5 vital issues that occurred within the crypto house final week.

Additionally on Tuesday, a glitch on trade Coinbase and price-tracker CoinMarketCap listed inaccurate costs of cryptocurrencies, most of which seemed to be overblown and inflated in worth.

Coinbase and CoinMarketCap customers had been confused, as this challenge drastically altered many pockets balances on the platforms.

The problem has since been resolved on each Coinbase and CoinMarketCap.

Coinbase blamed CoinMarketCap and its pricing knowledge for its glitch, however the the precise trigger remains to be unclear.

Throughout a Senate Banking Committee listening to on Tuesday, members mentioned stablecoins, that are cryptocurrencies that are supposed to be pegged to a reserve asset just like the U.S. greenback.

Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, shared his ideas on stablecoins and their dangers in his opening assertion.

“Let’s be clear about one factor: When you put your cash in stablecoins, there isn’t any assure you are going to get it again,” Sen. Brown stated. “Stablecoins and crypto markets aren’t truly an alternative choice to our banking system. They seem to be a mirror of the identical damaged system — with even much less accountability and no guidelines in any respect.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., agreed. “Stablecoins pose dangers to shoppers and to our financial system,” she tweeted following the listening to.

“They’re propping up one of many shadiest components of the crypto world, DeFi, the place shoppers are least shielded from getting scammed. Our regulators must get critical about clamping down earlier than it’s too late.”

Over $7.7 billion was stolen in cryptocurrency scams worldwide in 2021, in accordance with a brand new report by blockchain analytics agency Chainalysis. That is an 81% rise in comparison with 2020.

Rug pulls, a sort of rip-off the place builders abandon a venture and go away with traders’ funds, turned the “go-to rip-off” of the decentralized finance, or DeFi, ecosystem, Chainalysis wrote in its report.

In 2021, rug pulls accounted for over $2.8 billion stolen, or 37% of all cryptocurrency rip-off income, in comparison with 1% in 2020.