Crypto Mining

Core Scientific to transfer $20M of equipment to settle bankruptcy dispute

Millions of dollars worth of electrical equipment will be transferred to the crypto miners’ exclusive energy negotiator to settle a payments dispute.

A $20 million settlement between Bitcoin (BTC) miner Core Scientific and its energy negotiator Priority Power Management has been approved by the judge in Core Scientific’s bankruptcy proceedings.

In a March 20 filing in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Judge David Jones signed off on allowing Core Scientific to transfer around $20.8 million worth of equipment to Priority Power.

The companies had been in a dispute over two Texas-based mining facilities that were slated to receive 1,000 megawatts of power between them to increase Core Scientific’s mining capacity.

Core Scientific’s facility in Marble, North Carolina. Source: Core Scientific

In a declaration filed on March 19, Core Scientific executive Michael Bros said it brought on Priority Power in June 2021 to exclusively manage, consult and develop infrastructure to fulfil its energy needs “on a short ramp-up schedule.”

However, Bros said that by May 2022, “it became clear that the Facilities would not receive the anticipated power load,” and Core Scientific stopped making payments to Priority Power, which “suffered significant losses.”

Priority Power then claimed Core Scientific owed it around $30 million for the work it had performed before the miner filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December last year.

Related: Crypto mining in 2023 — Is it still worth it?

The judge’s decision means that Priority Power will be given $20.8 million worth of equipment from the now-bankrupt firm, including electrical equipment such as power transformers and breakers.

The deal also promises that Core Scientific “will introduce” Priority Power “to any acquirer” of its sites in Texas, so that it can potentially go into an energy management and consulting agreement with the new owners.

Priority Power will also get to keep $514,000 earned by curtailing power for Core Scientific. The miner will also reimburse the firm “for legal fees and out-of-pocket expenses up to $85,000.”

Core Scientific filed for bankruptcy due to pressure from falling company revenues, low Bitcoin prices and litigation costs against the bankrupt crypto lender Celsius.

Core Scientific has been forced to hand over equipment before, making made a deal in February with New York Digital Investment Group to pay off a $38.6 million debt by handing over more than 27,000 mining rigs that were used as collateral.

SEC accuses Utah firm of ‘fraudulent’ $18M crypto mining scheme

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission said Green United’s operation was a fraud, with the community quick to quell fears of the SEC classing crypto mining as a security.

Software and crypto mining equipment offered by the Utah-based Green United LLC was part of an $18 million “fraudulent scheme” that never mined the crypto it said it would, according to allegations by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The regulator filed a complaint in a Utah District Court on March 3 against Green United, its founder, Wright Thurston, and contracted promoter Kristoffer Krohn.

The complaint alleges the company and the two representatives fraudulently offered securities between April 2018 and December 2022 by selling investments in $3,000 “Green Boxes” and “Green nodes” purported to mine the GREEN token on the “Green Blockchain.”

Investors were allegedly told the firm was to develop the Green Blockchain to create a “public global decentralized power grid,” and the GREEN token would increase in value based on its efforts with returns of up to 50% a month.

However, the SEC claimed the hardware sold didn’t mine GREEN as it was an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token that could not be mined and the Green Blockchain didn’t exist.

It added the GREEN token was created “several months” after the first hardware sales to investors and was periodically distributed to “create the appearance of a successful mining operation.”

Instead the real scheme, according to the SEC, was using the funds to buy S9 Antminers — Bitcoin (BTC) mining rigs — which were passed off as the Green “boxes” and “nodes” to investors. The firm mined Bitcoin, not GREEN tokens, which the investors “did not receive.”

Is the SEC going after mining?

Meanwhile, the crypto community on Twitter has hosed down one interpretation of the SEC complaint, which suggests that the SEC is going after crypto miners arguing that selling miners or offering hosting for them is a securities investment contract.

The take came in a March 6 tweet from pseudonymous lawyer “MetaLawMan.”

However, crypto advocate and investment adviser Timothy Peterson argued the interpretation was a “bad take,” adding the case doesn’t “target mining in general.”

“The SEC is not saying ‘all sales of mining equipment is now a security,’” Peterson clarified.

Related: Lawmakers should check the SEC’s wartime consigliere with legislation

Another crypto commentator, Dennis Porter, CEO of the Bitcoin advocacy group the Satoshi Action Fund, tweeted that “the SEC is not coming after mining” and it “did not classify hosting as a security” and said Green United’s operation was “a scam disguised as mining.”

The SEC has asked for a court order to require Thurston, Krohn and Green United to cease operations, seeks civil penalties for securities law violations and repay the $18 million in allegedly ill-gotten gains.

What is opportunity cost? A definition and examples

Opportunity cost is the potential benefit that is missed out on when choosing one option over another.

Opportunity cost, explained

Opportunity cost is a concept in economics that refers to the value of the next best alternative that is forgone when making a choice — i.e., the cost of the best alternative that is not chosen.

Consider the scenario when you have a limited budget and are debating between buying a new laptop or going on vacation. The value of the vacation you could have taken with the same amount of money would be the opportunity cost if you decide to buy the laptop. Similarly, if you decide to take the vacation, the opportunity cost would be the laptop you could have purchased with the same amount of money.

Opportunity cost is a crucial factor to take into account when making decisions because it enables you to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of many options and come to the best decision possible based on one’s preferences and limits. By understanding the opportunity cost of a decision, individuals can better assess the true costs and benefits of the choices available to them.

Relevance of the opportunity cost concept in the crypto world

Opportunity cost is an important notion in the crypto industry because it is a highly speculative industry with large potential rewards and losses. The opportunity cost of hanging onto a certain asset vs. investing in a different asset must be considered by cryptocurrency traders and investors.

Consider a trader who made an investment in a cryptocurrency that has recently seen a significant rise in value. The trader can be tempted to keep the asset in the hopes that its value will rise more, but doing so prevents them from investing in other assets that might have superior growth potential. On the other hand, if the trader sells the asset to invest in another cryptocurrency that they believe has better growth potential, they risk missing out on potential gains if the original cryptocurrency continues to rise in value.

While miners choose what cryptocurrencies to mine based on expected profits and the resources needed to mine each asset, opportunity cost is also important in the cryptocurrency mining process. Miners can increase their profitability and prevent losing out on opportunities by weighing the opportunity cost of mining one cryptocurrency over another.

Related: What are the different ways to mine cryptocurrency?

Opportunity cost vs. sunk cost

Opportunity cost refers to the potential benefits that are foregone by choosing one option over another, while sunk cost refers to costs that have already been incurred and cannot be recovered. Opportunity cost and sunk cost are both concepts used in economics and decision-making analysis, but they represent different things:

A cryptocurrency investment that has seen a considerable drop in value is one example of a sunk cost. A person’s investment in a cryptocurrency becomes a sunk cost once they’ve made it; they can’t get their money back until the value of the cryptocurrency increases.

For instance, suppose an investor spends $10,000 on a cryptocurrency, after which the value of that coin falls to $5,000. The initial $10,000 investment becomes a sunk cost if the investor chooses to keep the coin rather than sell it. This is due to the fact that the money has already been spent and cannot be recovered until the value of the cryptocurrency increases. The sunk cost fallacy may be at play if the investor keeps holding onto the crypto in the hopes that its value will rise, which could result in greater losses.

The opportunity cost of using blockchain: How does it affect business?

Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the way businesses operate. However, using blockchain comes with opportunity costs that businesses need to consider. Therefore, companies must weigh the potential advantages of blockchain technology against the costs and trade-offs of deploying it before deciding whether to use it.

The greater security and transparency that blockchain technology offers is one of its main advantages. Blockchain offers a safe way to store and distribute data because it employs a decentralized ledger that is nearly impossible to compromise. Businesses handling sensitive information, such as financial or medical data, may find this to be very helpful. Also, the openness of blockchain can foster greater interparty trust, which is advantageous for companies operating in industries with a high degree of risk or fraud.

As mentioned, there are costs and trade-offs associated with using blockchain. The cost of developing and maintaining the technology is one of the major expenses associated with using blockchain. Blockchain technology is still in its infancy, and its implementation can be expensive. A blockchain network also needs a lot of computational power to be maintained, which can be expensive.

Related: 10 emerging technologies in computer science that will shape the future

Furthermore, the chance of missing out on alternative technology or solutions is another opportunity cost of embracing blockchain. Companies that aggressively invest in blockchain technology might miss out on chances to fund other cutting-edge technologies that might prove more beneficial in the long term.

Montana’s ‘right to mine’ crypto bill moves closer to passing as law

The bill seeks to enshrine crypto miners’ rights and will still have to pass muster in the states House before its signed into law by the governor.

A cryptocurrency mining rights bill with laws that would prohibit the discrimination of crypto miners is one step closer to fruition after passing the Montana Senate.

The proposed laws would enshrine a “right to mine digital assets” and would prohibit “discriminatory” electricity rates being charged to crypto miners, protect mining that occurs “at home” and strip local governments of the power to use zoning laws to stop crypto mining operations.

It also prohibits additional taxes on the use of crypto as a payment method and would consider “digital assets,” including cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens, as “personal property” alongside other financial products such as stocks and bonds.

The bill was passed in the state Senate on Feb. 23 with a vote of 37 for and 13 against and will head to the House for approval. If it is passed there as well, the final step would be for it to be signed into law by Governor Greg Gianforte, who could also choose to veto the bill.

Text from the bill outlining its provisions and some of the reasoning for the laws. Source: Montana State Legislature

The bill outlined that Montana wants to “protect the right to mine” crypto and “create legal certainty” for miners as mining “provides positive economic value” and could potentially “stabilize the grid and provide revenue for infrastructure upgrades.”

The bill was written with the help of the Satoshi Action Fund, a pro-Bitcoin (BTC) lobbying group.

Related: Hut 8 CEO weighs in on the bull and bear markets from a mining perspective

Dennis Porter, CEO of the advocacy body, told Cointelegraph in a January interview that leaders in Montana have used zoning laws to attempt to push miners out and have considered imposing higher electricity rates on miner operations.

In April 2019, Missoula County in Montana passed rules that required miners to operate only in light and heavy industrial districts and required miners to exclusively use renewable energy. If passed, the law would overturn the county’s zoning ordinance.

In early February, the Mississippi state Senate passed a similar bill seeking to protect crypto miners from discrimination and is working its way to the states House.

Meanwhile, Missouri’s Digital Asset Mining Protection Act, which aims to protect the rights of crypto miners, was introduced to the state legislature in mid-January.

Bitcoin miners already made nearly $600K from Ordinals’ NFT transactions

The Ordinals hype is real, with the NFT inscriptions now regularly taking over 50% of Bitcoin block space.

Bitcoin (BTC) miners have earned nearly $600,000 in two months from a new controversial nonfungible token (NFT) protocol called Ordinals that has triggered a surge in user activity.

What are Bitcoin Ordinals? 

Ordinals allow users to inscribe data in images and other media types in newly mined blocks on the blockchain that is otherwise largely used for peer-to-peer (P2P) monetary transactions. 

Fee spent on inscribing Ordinal NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain. Source: Dune Analytics

Since the launch of Ordinals in mid-December 2022, users have inscribed nearly 74,000 NFTs into the Bitcoin blockchain, earning miners a cumulative $574,000 in BTC transaction fees to date, data from Dune Analytics shows.

These NFTs include “digital artifacts” stemming from clones of projects like CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection.

Rising demand for Bitcoin block space

The Ordinals protocol was made possible by Segregated Witness (SegWit) and Taproot, Bitcoin’s network soft fork upgrades from 2017 and 2021, respectively.

Related: Ordinals protocol sparks debate over the place for NFTs in the Bitcoin ecosystem

For instance, the SegWit update effectively increased Bitcoin’s block capacity to four megabytes (4 MB).

Similarly, the Taproot update helps batch and verify multiple transactions together as long as their size does not exceed 4 MB. This feature allows the inscription of data, such as images and videos, in Bitcoin blocks.

Bitcoin Taproot adoption in recent weeks. Source: Dune Analytics

The advent of Ordinals has coincided with Bitcoin’s mean block size jumping from its typical average of 1.5–2 MB to between three and 3.5 MB in early February.

Bitcoin mean block size. Source: Glassnode

Simultaneously, the number of pending SegWit and non-SegWit blocks in the Bitcoin mempool has also increased significantly — the highest since the FTX collapse, as shown below.

The number of pending blocks in the Bitcoin Mempool. Source: Glassnode

On some occasions, Ordinals’ data has been comprising over 50% of Bitcoin block space, according to BitMEX Research.

“This describes a growth in the user base and an upwards pressure on the fee market from usage beyond the typical investment and monetary transfer use cases,” noted Glassnode in its weekly report, adding:

“Ordinals are a new frontier […] to observe how it affects and manifests in both on-chain network and investor behavior.“

Ordinals: BTC miners’ new revenue stream? 

Bitcoin miners generate most of their revenue from the network’s block subsidies, i.e., finding or “mining” new blocks. By comparison, the share of miners’ earnings from transaction fees is only about 3%.

Currently, the Bitcoin network rewards miners with 6.25 BTC per block. But this subsidy will drop by 50% to 3.125 BTC in spring 2024 in a halving event, which happens every four years. As a result, the share of miners’ revenue from transaction fees is expected to rise over time as block rewards decrease.

To some, Ordinals introduce what’s called miner extractable value, or MEV, which has been previously associated with mining on Ethereum.

Simply put, MEV is the maximum value that miners can obtain from producing new blocks beyond the block rewards and transaction fees. 

Critics, however, argue that Ordinals is an “attack” that will price out the real financial activity and thus damage Bitcoin’s image as a reliable P2P payments network.

“Bitcoin is designed to be censor resistant,” said Adam Back, co-founder and CEO of Blockstream, adding:

“[It] doesn’t stop us mildly commenting on the sheer waste and stupidity of an encoding. At least do something efficient. Otherwise, it’s another proof of consumption of block-space thingy.“

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Further BTC mining consolidation as Crusoe acquires peer mining firm

Crusoe Energy Systems has just acquired the operating assets of Great American Mining, a sign that further consolidation could be ahead.

Amid soaring Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty and sinking mining profitability, Colorado-based Bitcoin miner Crusoe Energy Systems has announced the acquisition of the operating assets of portable BTC mining operator Great American Mining (GAM).

The deal will see GAM’s operations integrate into Crusoe’s, adding over 10 megawatts (MW) to its mining output and around 4,000 application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) crypto mining rigs — increasing Crusoe’s capacity by about 9%, according to the company.

GAM builds and deploys portable BTC mining facilities — vehicle trailer-mounted containers enclosed with ASIC miners — with the goal of helping oil and gas companies take advantage of stranded or otherwise wasted natural gas by using it to power the facility to mine BTC.

Crusoe will have roughly 125 of these gas-powered waste containers deployed and operating following the acquisition, which it says could reduce an annual CO2-equivalent emission of around 170,000 cars.

The consolidation of these two mining operations comes as the sector faces pressure from both the traditional and crypto markets, along with an all-time high BTC mining difficulty, all of which is negatively affecting miner profitability.

Markus Thielen, head of research and strategy for digital asset services platform Matrixport, told Cointelegraph the majority of the mining hash rate moving to the United States over the last two years had “significant consequences” on how the industry was positioned into the wider economic downturn.

“Around 20 Bitcoin mining companies raised additional capital through IPOs where shareholders demanded a high correlation to the underlying Bitcoin price,” he said, explaining orders for new mining machines were placed a year in advance, which was expected to come online in the third quarter of 2022:

“The result was that mining companies bought Bitcoin directly from the market at higher costs than their mining operations and were negatively exposed to further capital expenditure investments as they placed equipment orders a year in advance.”

As miners waited for the equipment, some sold significant parts of their BTC reserves to recoup expenditures, but Thielen says “this has not been enough,” and expects an “outright industry restructuring.”

Related: Canaan exec says opportunity outweighs crisis as Bitcoin miners struggle with shrinking profits

Crypto miners such as CleanSpark have already shown to be interested in snapping up cheap assets amid tough market conditions, purchasing over 1,000 ASIC mining rigs at a “substantially discounted price” in July and 1,800 Antminer S19 XP rigs the month prior.

In September, CleanSpark went on to purchase a $33 million facility in the United States from Australian-based miner Mawson, spending an extra $9.5 million buying the firms’ 6,468 ASIC mining rigs.

Rising energy costs and the crypto bear market caused mining hosting firm Compute North to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September, with the company owing $500 million to 200 creditors with assets worth anywhere between $100 million and $500 million.

Marathon reports $80M exposure to bankrupt mining firm

Marathon has outlined that at this stage its operations hosted by Compute North will continue to operate as usual, and highlighted an improved BTC mining production in Q3.

Bitcoin (BTC) miner Marathon Digital Holdings has revealed $81.3 million worth of exposure to recently bankrupted mining hosting provider Compute North.

Marathon provided a breakdown of its exposure on Oct. 6, explaining the majority was in operating deposits worth $50 million, noting these deposits “were primarily related to King Mountain and Wolf Hollow security deposits and prepayments associated with the ongoing operation of those sites.”

The remainder is split between $21.3 million allocated to “an unsecured senior promissory note” and $10 million in convertible preferred Compute North stock.

It comes weeks after Compute North submitted a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas on Sept. 23.

Under a Chapter 11 filing, the firm is able to keep its operations going as it works out plans to restructure and repay creditors.

Marathon Digital said portions of its BTC mining operations are hosted by Compute North in locations such as Texas, Nebraska and South Dakota. The firm has outlined that at this stage, its operations hosted by Compute North will continue to operate as usual.

“Marathon has not experienced any significant negative impacts on its operations at King Mountain, where miners continue to be energized according to schedule,” the firm stated, but noted it had “experienced some delays at Wolf Hollow [Texas], which Compute North has attributed to a regulatory matter.”

Marathon’s recent performance

While miner profit margins are bound to have been tighter given the bearish nature of BTC this year, Marathon emphasized that its operational performance is improving.

During the third quarter of 2022 Marathon mined 616 BTC — worth $12.3 million at the time of writing — with the firm highlighting that production significantly ramped up month-over-month, going from 72 BTC and 184 BTC in July and August, respectively, to 360 BTC in September.

Related: Grayscale announces new arm to invest in Bitcoin mining hardware

By the end of September, Marathon stated it had an operating mining fleet consisting “of approximately 37,000 active miners,” producing around 3.8 Exahases per second (EH/s). However, the total has increased significantly since then, with 57,000 active miners producing 5.7 EH/s as of Oct. 5.

Marathon also outlined that its total BTC holdings reached 10,670 BTC, with a fair market value of around $207.3 million as of Sept. 30, while unrestricted cash on hand hit $55.3 million.

Ethereum miners dump 30K ETH, stonewalling ‘ultra sound money’ deflation narrative

Ethereum miners have sold over $40 million worth of ETH because of the Merge and plummeting revenue.

Ethereum’s switch to proof-of-stake (PoS) on Sept. 15 failed to extend Ether’s (ETH) upside momentum as ETH miners added sell pressure to the market. 

On the daily chart, ETH price declined from around $1,650 on Sept. 15 to around $1,350 on Sept. 20, an almost 16% drop. The ETH/USD pair dropped in sync with other top cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), amid worries about higher Federal Reserve rate hikes.

ETH/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView

Ethereum remains inflationary

The Ether price drop on Sept. 15 also coincided with an increase in ETH supply, albeit not immediately post-Merge. 

Roughly 24 hours later, the supply change flipped positive once more, pouring cold water on the “ultra sound money” narrative due to a deflationary environment that some proponents expected post-Merge. 

Pre-Merge, Ethereum distributed around 13,000 ETH per day to its proof-of-stake (PoW) miners and about 1,600 ETH to its PoS validators. But the rewards to miners dropped after the Merge went live by roughly 90%.

Meanwhile, validators receiving Ether rewards now only make 10.6% of the previous amount. As a result, Ether’s annual emissions have dropped by around 0.5%, making ETH less inflationary, and perhaps even deflationary under certain circumstances.

Still, the Ether supply has been rising at an annual rate of 0.2% after the Merge, according to data provided by Ultrasound Money. 

Ether supply rate after the Merge. Source: Ultrasound.Money

The main reason behind the growing supply is lower transaction fees.

Notably, Ethereum made a change to its protocol in August 2021 that introduced a fee-burning mechanism. In other words, the network started removing a portion of the fee it charges for each transaction permanently. This system has burned 2.6 million ETH since going live.

Data shows that the Ethereum network’s gas fees must be around 15 Gwei to counterbalance the ETH rewarded to validators. But the fee was averaging around 14.3 Gwei on Sept. 20, meaning the ETH supply, on the whole, has been increasing.

Ethereum gas fees vs. supply. Source: Ultrasound.Money

Nonetheless, ETH’s issuance rate has decreased post-Merge, even though the supply rate remains positive with roughly 3,700 ETH minted post-Merge to date.

Miners add to ETH selling pressure

In addition, Ether’s price drop post-Merge comes after Ethereum miners’ mass exit from the ETH market.

Related: Does the Ethereum Merge offer a new destination for institutional investors?

Miners sold about 30,000 ETH (~$40.7 million) in the days leading up to the Ethereum’s PoS update, according to data provided by OKLink.

ETH miner address balance. Source: OKLink

Pseudonymous analyst “BakedEnt.eth” noted that the miners’ ETH selling-spree offset the impact of the slowdown in Ether’s issuance reduction.

“The Merge has been live for a couple of days, but many fail to see the impact of the 95% daily issuance reduction for a total of 49.000 $ETH in 4 days,” he wrote, adding:

“Miners have been selling relentlessly into this reduction and have dumped over 30.000 $ETH in the same timeframe.”

ETH’s price now risks dropping a further $750 in light of current macroeconomic headwinds, which are putting pressure on risk-on assets across the board.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Sneaky fake Google Translate app installs crypto miner on 112,000 PCs

Dressed up as legitimate desktop software, this sneaky malware has infected thousands of machines across 11 countries, forcing them to unknowingly mine Monero (XMR).

Crypto mining malware has been sneakily invading hundreds of thousands of computers around the world since 2019, often masquerading as legitimate programs such as Google Translate, new research has found. 

In a Monday report by Check Point Research (CPR), a research team for American-Israeli cybersecurity provider, Check Point Software Technologies revealed the malware has been flying under the radar for years, thanks partly to its insidious design which delays installing the crypto mining malware for weeks after the initial software download.

Linked to a Turkish-based-speaking software developer claiming to offer “free and safe software,” the malware program invades PCs through counterfeit desktop versions of popular apps such as YouTube Music, Google Translate and Microsoft Translate.

Once a scheduled task mechanism triggers the malware installation process, it steadily goes through several steps over several days, ending with a stealth Monero (XMR) crypto mining operation being set up.

The cybersecurity firm said that the Turkish-based crypto miner dubbed ‘Nitrokod’ has infected machines across 11 countries.

According to CPR, popular software downloading sites like Softpedia and Uptodown had forgeries available under the publisher name Nitrokod INC. 

Some of the programs had been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times, such as the fake desktop version of Google Translate on Softpedia, which even had nearly a thousand reviews, averaging a star score of 9.3 out of 10, despite Google not having an official desktop version for that program.

Screenshot by Check Point Research of the alleged fake app

According to Check Point Software Technologies, offering a desktop version of apps is a key part of the scam.

Most programs offered by Nitrokod do not have a desktop version, making the counterfeit software appealing to users who think they’ve found a program unavailable anywhere else.

According to Maya Horowitz, vice president of research at Check Point Software, the malware-riddled fakes are also available “by a simple web search.”

“What’s most interesting to me is the fact that the malicious software is so popular, yet went under the radar for so long.”

As of writing, Nitrokod’s imitation Google Translate Desktop program remains one of the main search results.

Design helps avoid detection

The malware is particularly tricky to detect, as even when a user launches the sham software, they remain none the wiser as the fake apps can also mimic the same functions that the legitimate app provides.

Most of the hacker’s programs are easily built from the official web pages using a Chromium-based framework, allowing them to spread functional programs loaded with malware without developing them from the ground up.

Related: 8 sneaky crypto scams on Twitter right now

So far, over one hundred thousand people across Israel, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, Australia, Greece, Turkey, Mongolia and Poland have all fallen prey to the malware.

To avoid getting scammed by this malware and others like it, Horowitz, says several basic security tips can help reduce the risk.

“Beware of lookalike domains, spelling errors in websites, and unfamiliar email senders. Only download software only from authorised, known publishers or vendors and ensure your endpoint security is up to date and provides comprehensive protection.”