The R Roundup: $JUP Airdrop In Jupuary🪂 - Issue #122

Jupiter, a decentralized trading aggregator on Solana, is gearing up to airdrop its JUP token at the end of January.

This move comes amidst a period of heightened activity in Solana's DeFi space, driven by meme coins, and the surging price of SOL.

The upcoming JUP token airdrop is poised to test the endurance of the ongoing altcoin fervor. Meow, the founder, emphasized that the goal isn't merely about optimizing hype or achieving a perfect price discovery. Instead, the airdrop is an experimental move aimed at executing a major token distribution—a "high-stress event"—while ensuring inclusive participation.

With nearly 1 million Solana wallets qualifying for a portion of the significant airdrop (40% of JUP's total supply), the scale underscores Jupiter's popularity among traders. This distribution event serves as a stress test, not only for JUP's trading infrastructure but also for the robustness of the Solana network itself, according to Meow's statement on X.

South Korean Crypto Credit Card Ban🇰🇷

South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) has proposed an amendment to its credit finance act to prevent citizens from using credit cards to purchase cryptocurrencies.

This proposed change is driven by concerns regarding citizens buying crypto on overseas exchanges.

The regulator cited worries about illegal fund outflows, potential money laundering, and the fostering of speculative behavior as reasons for this amendment. To address these concerns, the proposal aims to restrict local traders' ability to buy cryptocurrencies using credit cards, particularly on foreign crypto platforms.

Public feedback on this proposal will be collected until February 13, with plans for review and potential implementation in the first half of 2024, as reported by Yonhap News Agency. This proposed amendment aligns with South Korea's existing regulations, which require crypto users to trade using verified accounts on local exchanges and impose stringent licensing requirements on platforms offering fiat-to-crypto services.

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Crypto Phishing Peaked At $300 Million In 2023🚨

A report from Scam Sniffer details a significant surge in crypto phishing activities during 2023.

According to their findings, wallet drainer malware was utilized to siphon almost $300 million in cryptocurrency from over 324,000 victims throughout the year. These phishing activities deploy malware on fraudulent websites that obscure their true server addresses using services like Cloudflare. By coercing users into endorsing malicious transactions with their crypto wallets, scammers exploit these deceptive sites to pilfer funds.

Scam Sniffer highlighted the evolution of these scams, where new wallet-draining methods replace older ones swiftly. Even recently, the CEO of Nest, a security-focused crypto wallet app, fell victim to a phishing scam, resulting in the loss of 52 stETH (equivalent to $125,000) from their MetaMask wallet. This incident was related to a counterfeit airdrop guide for the LFG token, targeting prominent Ethereum users migrating to Solana.

The report outlined several phishing tactics, from hijacking crypto projects’ websites to generating fraudulent traffic via compromised X and Discord accounts, employing airdrops, spamming social media comments, and utilizing paid Google search ads.

Although the crypto community is quick to respond to hacking attacks, phishing tactics involving airdrops, organic traffic, paid ads, or hijacked Discord links tend to go unnoticed for longer periods. Inferno Drainer emerged as a notorious wallet drainer, pilfering $81 million from 134,000 victims. Other prominent drainers, like Monkey and Venom, also made headlines by stealing millions in crypto before ceasing operations.

Instances of significant theft often coincided with major crypto events or security breaches. Scam Sniffer alleges that these malevolent services took a 20% cut of the stolen funds, profiting from each cybercrime episode. Despite scanning nearly 12 million URLs and identifying around 145,000 malicious web links in the past year, phishing attacks in the crypto domain continue to evolve and persist.

Vitalik Buterin ENS Entreé 👏

The ENS token for the Ethereum Name Service project saw a remarkable surge of over 50%.

This was after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin labelled the service as "super important." Buterin's remarks emphasized the need for Layer-2 blockchains (L2s) to develop trustless, Merkle-proof-based CCIP resolvers. This approach aims to enable direct registration, updates, and readability of ENS subdomains on L2s while ensuring affordability.

The surge in the value of the ENS token propelled it to $12.54, marking its highest trading level since April.

This surge was notably followed by a rebound from a daily low of $8.50, demonstrating substantial volatility along with a staggering 600% increase in trading volume. Buterin's comments highlight the pivotal role of ENS in the decentralized ecosystem, showcasing its potential to facilitate more accessible and efficient domain name services within Layer-2 blockchains.

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