TL;DR#
- Axie Infinity has announced the alpha release of Axie Infinity Homeland.
- The Chinese Government has launched its first regulated NFT marketplace.
- The French National Rugby League has launched an NFT platform dubbed Legendary Plays.
The web3 industry is growing, and there is no doubt that NFT is a part of the whole ecosystem. Last year, there was a
huge influx of digital collections, new marketplaces, and easy-money schemes in the space. This created a perfect
opportunity for extensive growth, as well as multiple reasons for hackers and exploiters to break into systems and use
them in bad ways. In 2022, NFTs brought in $55.5 billion in sales, which was a 175% increase from 2021, when they
brought in only $20.2 billion.
Blockchain Hacks#
Hackers were able to compromise and gain access to the Twitter account of Mutant Hounds and posted a link to an airdrop, resulting in a loss of 115 ETH worth
approximately $138,000. Fans were taken aback when they discovered a link to an airdrop on the Mutant Hounds Twitter
account. Except there was no airdrop of Mutant Hounds. A Twitter user discovered that the link had recently registered
with Namecheap and requested that the hosting for the scam link be removed. Individual members of the team later took
to Twitter to inform the community that the account had been recovered. Such incidents are common in the web3 space;
therefore, it is critical that we do not click on random links found on the internet without first verifying their
legitimacy.
Snowflake Finance was reportedly a rug pull project, with the
team removing their social media channels and website. Approximately $354,000 in assets were transferred to addresses
on the BSC chain, and approximately $154,000 in funds are available at their controlled addresses on the Polygon
chain, resulting in a total loss of more than $500,000.
Hackers targeted the jaypeggerz project, causing a loss of
approximately 15.32 ETH. The attack was made possible by a contract-level reentrancy attack that successfully
manipulated the JAY token's price. The price of the JAY token is calculated by dividing the Ether balance of the
JAY contract by the total supply of the JAY token; thus, the JAY contract allowed users to pass arbitrary ERC-721
tokens to the buyJay function. The attacker used this vulnerability to re-enter the JAY contract, borrowing 72.5 ETH
for a flash loan and 22 ETH to purchase the JAY token. Then he used an additional 50.5 ETH to call the buyJay
function, passing the fake ERC-721 token. This allowed the attacker to re-enter the JAY contract by calling the sell
function and selling all of the JAY tokens in order to manipulate the JAY token price. The exploiter repeated this
process twice in a single transaction, gaining a total profit of 15.32 ETH, before tunneling the funds to Tornado
Cash.
Axie Infinity has announced the alpha release of Axie Infinity: Homeland, giving fans of the brand their much
awaited first opportunity to interact with their prized Land NFTs. Players first direct their Axies to build a
flourishing settlement on the stunning planet of Lunacia. They can then arm native explorers with weapons and armor in
order to take down monsters. Both Mac and PC users can access the alpha release through Mavis Hub. However, at this
time, the only people who can take part in the activity are landowners. Users can join in by visiting Mavis Hub,
installing the client, and then starting to develop right away! Homeland therefore gives players the chance to
discover new land plots, acquire resources, establish settlements, engage in trade with other landowners, and more.
The Chinese government has launched its own NFT marketplace for
the trading of digital collectibles. The marketplace was developed by the state-sponsored China Technology Exchange,
the state-owned Art Exhibitions China, and the private company Huban Digital Copyrights Ltd, and went live on January
1, 2023. It will also offer institutions and individuals with rights protection monitoring and copyright protection
for digital assets. The NFT marketplace will utilize the China Cultural Security Chain blockchain, but trading
instruments and settlement mechanisms will be governed by China Technology Exchange. The marketplace will 0be subject
to stringent government regulation and may likely not necessarily operate in the same manner as OpenSea.
The French National Rugby League has made its first foray into the NFT space with the launch of its Web3 platform, Legendary Plays on the Tezos blockchain
network. Fans of the sport can now support their favorite club by collecting their favorite snippets of exciting game
play. Users can then gather boosters to raise rarity levels and collect highlights of their fan lives in what are
referred to as Plays. Players can also win special NFT Plays that showcase a video of legendary Top 14 or Pro D2 Rugby
match highlights. A Play NFT represents the secret to using the benefits of the Legendary Plays platform. Once a play
is bought, the buyer acquires the limited-edition copy of that specific in-game action. Each play has a variable
rarity rating, based on how many stars it has.
OnChain Insurance Industry News#
Sherlock Protocol has completed the proportional airdrop of MPL tokens related to the M11 Credit Pool Cover to
affected staker addresses based on the amount staked and the loss sustained.
