burn

NFT investor accidentally burns $135K CryptoPunk trying to borrow money

While going through the unfamiliar process of wrapping NFTs, Riley accidentally sent the asset to a burn address, permanently deleting the NFT from circulation.

A nonfungible token (NFT) from the CryptoPunks collection worth 77 Ether (ETH) was sent to a burn address to be permanently destroyed. However, the collector intended to borrow some money against it to buy another NFT.

NFT collector Brandon Riley added CryptoPunk #685 to his collection on March 13 by paying 77 ETH, hoping to hold it for the long term.

As a seasoned investor, Riley knew the importance of procuring new NFTs right before crypto markets took off into a new bull market. As a result, he decided to borrow some money against CryptoPunk #685 by using a popular technique known as wrapping.

While going through the unfamiliar process of wrapping NFTs, Riley accidentally sent the asset to a burn address — which permanently deleted the NFT from circulation, as shown below.

Trading history of CryptoPunk $#685. Source: dappradar.com

“I was told to follow the directions exactly, so I did,” explained Riley, but in the process, he ended up losing 77 ETH, which was worth $135,372.16. He explained:

“I was not wrapping this punk to sell it on Blur. It was to be my “forever punk.” The number is exact reverse of my ape. I was only wrapping it because I needed to borrow some liquidity from it.”

While members of Crypto Twitter believed that the NFT collector must have had “deep pockets,” Riley contradicted the rumors by revealing that he had purchased CryptoPunk #685 through borrowed money.

“I just shouldn’t have attempted this on my own, I guess,” was Riley’s takeaway from the experience. On the other hand, Crypto Twitter also blamed confusing user interfaces and complex instructions for the investor’s loss. As a result, the community unanimously agreed on the need to revamp the front-end processes for crypto ecosystems.

Related: Improving Bitcoin NFT marketplace infrastructure sets the stage for ecosystem growth

NFT wash trading increased by 126% in February, confirmed a CoinGecko report. The top six NFT marketplaces are Magic Eden, OpenSea, Blur, X2Y2, CryptoPunks and LooksRare. X2Y2, Blur and LooksRare saw a rise in wash trading for the fourth straight month, with a total volume of $580 million.

NFT wash trading volume, January 2022–February 2023. Source: CoinGecko, Footprint Analytics

As Cointelegraph previously reported, the issue of wash trading stems from a lack of clear regulations.

Magazine: 4 out of 10 NFT sales are fake: Learn to spot the signs of wash trading

Alameda tried to redeem 3,000 wBTC days before bankruptcy: BitGo CEO

The CEO of Bitgo stated that the Alameda representative failed the security verification process required to convert Wrapped BTC into BTC.

Mike Belshe, the CEO of digital asset custodian BitGo has confirmed that Alameda Research attempted to redeem 3,000 Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) in the days before FTX’s bankruptcy filing on Nov. 11. 

During a Dec. 14 Twitter Spaces hosted by decentralized finance (DeFi) researcher Chris Blec, Belshe confirmed the firm knocked back the redemption request because the unknown Alameda representative involved didn’t pass Bitgo’s security verification process and seemed unfamiliar with how the wrapped Bitcoin burning process worked.

“[The security details] didn’t match the process. So we held it up and we said no, no, no, no. This is not what the burn looks like. And we need to know who this person was.”

“So we held it and while we were holding it, waiting for a response on those issues [Alameda] went bankrupt and of course, once they went bankrupt, everything halted,” Belshe added.

The Bitgo CEO also said that Alameda’s 3,000 BTC mint request remains “stuck” on the platform’s dashboard, adding that the firm would most likely leave the tokens where they are until they’re dealt with by the trustees taking on Alameda’s bankruptcy case.

Alameda’s failed mint transaction request of 3,000 wBTC in exchange for 3000 BTC. Source: wBTC Network Dashboard.

Alameda’s attempt to unwrap the 3,000 wBTC was also confirmed on the Ethereum transaction aggregator Etherscan.

While this would have ordinarily triggered the redemption of BTC, Bitgo has a security mechanism set in place before the conversion takes place, which is what Alameda failed.

It is not understood what the motive was for attempting to redeem the $50 million worth of wBTC, but it is understood that FTX executives were attempting to raise funds from a variety of sources to stave off bankruptcy up until the last minute.

Analysis from Arkham Intelligence on Nov. 25 found that Alameda pulled $204 million from eight different addresses from FTX.US five days before its parent firm eventually filed for Chapter 11.

Related: Alameda had ‘unfair’ trading advantage, special access to FTX funds: CFTC filing

wBTC is a tokenized version of BTC, which can be redeemed for BTC when it is sent to a burn address, triggeringthe release of BTC. The conversion is made at a 1:1 ratio.

The tokenization of wrapped Bitcoin enables Bitcoin holders to interact with Ethereum-based smart contracts and decentralized applications.

Bitgo co-developed wBTC in 2019 alongside blockchain interoperability protocol Ren and multi-chain liquidity platform Kyber. wBTC is also managed by the decentralized autonomous organization wBTC DAO, which comprises over 30 members.

The wBTC dashboard currently shows that BitGo now holds 202,255 BTC in custody against 199,238 wBTC in circulation, amounting to an overcollateralization rate of 101.51%.

Damien Hirst live streams the burning of $10M in art for NFT project

“The Currency” is the name given to Hirst’s NFT project, which examines the value of digital art vs. physical art.

Britain’s wealthiest living artist, Damien Hirst, has started setting fire to millions of dollars worth of his own artworks as part of his nonfungible token (NFT) project “The Currency.”

During an Oct. 11 livestream of his London gallery at 12:30 pm local time, Hirst burned hundreds of his own The Currency artworks, ensuring that they exist only in the form of an NFT moving forward.

The Currency is the name given to Hirst’s first NFT collection which dropped last year — made up of 10,000 NFTs each tied to a physical oil painting.

The project has been part of Hirst’s social experiment that tests the worth of purely digital art versus physical art.

Collectors who had bought one of the $2,000 floor-priced NFTs were given one year to decide whether they would keep the NFT or trade it in for the physical painting.

In July, the deadline for the decision was reached, with 5,149 paintings to be delivered as physical pieces of art, and 4,851 paintings to exist only in digital form.

Asked about how he felt burning the artwork, Hirst said, “It feels good, better than I expected,” according to a report from the BBC.

The remaining oil paintings will continue to be burned at the Newport Street Gallery until The Currency exhibition closes on Sept. 30.

Source: Instagram

“A lot of people think I’m burning millions of dollars of art but I’m not, I’m completing the transformation of these physical artworks into NFTs by burning the physical versions,” said Hirst the day before the burn event.

“The value of art, digital or physical, which is hard to define at the best of times will not be lost, it will be transferred to the NFT as soon as they are burnt.”

Hirst’s The Currency collection is listed on NFT marketplace OpenSea with a floor price of 5.1 Ether (ETH), worth $6,539 at the time of writing. The most recently sold piece, named “V-Day of consent,” fetched 5.08 ETH.

Binance burns $1.8M in LUNC trading fees following community proposal

According to the crypto exchange, the burn was the equivalent of 1,863,213.47 USDT — roughly 5.5 million LUNC.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced it completed the first burn of Terra Classic tokens’ trading fees in response to a community proposal from September.

In an Oct. 3 update, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the exchange had burned roughly $1.8 million worth of Terra Classic (LUNC) — formerly Terra (LUNA) — trading fees for LUNC/BUSD and LUNC/USDT spot and margin trading pairs. According to Binance, the burn included the equivalent of 1,863,213.47 Tether (USDT) — roughly 5.5 million LUNC.

The exchange’s original announcement from Sept. 26 said the burns would be completed every Monday — making the next event on Oct. 10 — sending trading fees to a LUNC burn address. Many in the Terra community proposed the burn strategy as part of efforts to revive LUNC, whose price had dropped to almost zero in May and briefly surged by more than 250% in September.

Related: Do Kwon shares LUNA burn address but warns ‘LUNAtics’ against using it

Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon, whom many in the crypto space want held to account for his role in Terra’s collapse, has been targeted by South Korean authorities for allegedly violating the country’s capital markets laws. A warrant has been issued for his arrest and Interpol added Kwon’s name to its Red Notice list, requesting that local law enforcement — many have suggested he may be in Singapore — detain the Terra co-founder. At the time of publication, Kwon’s whereabouts are unknown, but he said on Twitter on Sept. 26 that he was “making zero effort to hide.”

LUNC investors react to CZ’s 1.2% trading tax recommendation on Binance

Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, recommended a flat 1.2% trading tax on LUNC trades that could be burned to reduce the token’s total supply and improve its price performance.

The infamous collapse of the Terra ecosystem, which erased market prices of TerraUSD (UST) and LUNA tokens, continues to trouble anxious investors as co-founder Do Kwon, crypto exchanges and the community together try to identify the best route for a sustainable price recovery.

Most recently, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the CEO of crypto exchange Binance, recommended a flat 1.2% trading tax on LUNC trades that could be burned to reduce the token’s total supply and improve its price performance. Addressing the community, CZ stated:

“We will implement an opt-in button [on the Binance exchange], for people to opt-in to pay a 1.2% tax for their LUNC trading.”

However, the exchange would begin the taxation for opt-in traders following the consensus of 25% of the LUNC investors, making sure that early adopters “are not the only few paying an extra 1.2%.”

A blanket trading tax of 1.2% will be implemented for all LUNC trading only after opt-in traders reach 50% of the total LUNC trading volume on the exchange.

The recommendation split up the LUNA community, as some supported CZ’s decision to implement the opt-in button while others interpreted it as market manipulation from a centralized entity.

CZ backed LUNC burning but believes in community voting, allowing traders on the platform to finalize the suggestion, adding, “We listen to and protect our users.” However, the entrepreneur is aware that, unless the change is implemented across all exchanges and on-chain, LUNC traders would prefer moving assets to other exchanges that don’t have the burn.

Related: South Korean authorities ask Interpol to issue ‘Red Notice’ for Do Kwon: Report

On the other end of the spectrum, South Korean authorities are trying to track down and arrest Kwon for the Terra collapse.

On Sept. 14, a court in Seoul, South Korea, issued an arrest warrant for Kwon and five other people for violating the country’s capital markets law.