Microsoft Set to Vote on Bitcoin, Peter Todd Hiding and More: Hodler’s Digest, October 20

Peter Todd was forced to go into hiding after an HBO documentary claimed he invented Bitcoin

Canadian cryptographer and computer scientist Peter Todd says he was forced into hiding out of fear for his safety after an HBO documentary claimed he was the inventor of Bitcoin.

The film, titled “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery,” was released on October 9 and claims to finally unravel the mystery surrounding the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the supposed inventor of Bitcoin.

Ultimately, after exploring other candidates, the documentary ends on a dubious note with Todd saying, “Well, yes, I'm Satoshi Nakamoto.”

Todd has repeatedly denied being Satoshi Nakamoto and denied the film's claims. According to a recent interview with Wired, he was forced to go into hiding out of fear for his safety. The documentary's director, Cullen Hoback, said he used circumstantial evidence to support the documentary's flawed conclusions.

However, according to numerous sources and footage from his own documentary, Todd apparently has a history of jokingly declaring, “I'm Satoshi.” These statements appear to be based on the famous line “I am Spartacus” from the famous movie Spartacus.

In the year In the 1960 film, a group of warriors are captured by Roman soldiers and offered mercy if they identify a man known as Spartacus. In response, the warriors each in turn claim that Spartacus is a symbol of unity.

Microsoft shareholders have offered a strict view of investing in Bitcoin

Microsoft shareholders are set to vote in December on whether the tech giant should publicly consider adding bitcoin to its balance sheet, according to a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

In an Oct. 24 filing, Microsoft said the proposal, titled “Review of Investing in Bitcoin,” will be voted on by certain shareholders at the Dec. 10 meeting. Still, Microsoft's board recommends voting against it because it “evaluates many investable assets,” including bitcoin.

The National Center for Public Policy Research highlighted the business intelligence firm MicroStrategy's Bitcoin investment strategy and stated that this year it outperformed Microsoft by more than 300%, which pushed the proposal “despite the fact that the business segment is working” Microsoft. He also said that institutional and corporate adoption is becoming “commonplace” through Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

Additionally, the research firm noted that bitcoin is volatile but can be used as a hedge against inflation and corporate bond products. “At the very least, companies should evaluate the benefits of owning even 1% of their assets in Bitcoin,” he said.

Hacker behind fake Bitcoin ETF X post pleads not guilty

Eric Council Jr., the man accused of hacking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's X account and posting messages suggesting the acceptance of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), has pleaded not guilty in a D.C. court.

At his arraignment Oct. 25 before U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, Council Jr. pleaded not guilty to one count of identity theft and one count of instrument fraud. He was allegedly part of a group that hacked the SEC's X account in January, when the commission published a post announcing that it had officially approved the position of Bitcoin ETFs for the first time.

FBI officials arrested Councilor Jr. on October 17 in Alabama. According to Bloomberg, prosecutors considered “extending a plea” to Council Jr. It is unclear if US authorities intend to execute additional arrest warrants for individuals involved in the SEC violation.

US officials say a group allegedly part of Council Jr. took control of the SEC's X account in a SIM swap attack. The X Security Group reported that the SEC later confirmed that the Commission's account had not enabled two-factor authentication, which led to the breach.

Bitfinex wallet hacker returns most of $20 million to US government

On October 24, 2016, the malicious actor who drained the US government wallet containing funds seized from the 2016 Bitfinex hack to the tune of $20 million returned $19.3 million to the government wallet in less than 24 hours.

According to Arkham Intelligence, several wallets controlled by the hacker returned the funds to US government wallets starting with the characters “0xc9E”. At the time of writing, 88% of the funds have been refunded.

Onchain data shows the hacker recovered approximately 2,412 Ether and $13.2 million in avv-staked USDC (aUSDC). Independent blockchain investigator ZackXBT said the recovered funds do not include the roughly $700,000 the hacker sent to instant exchanges.

The identity of the hacker and the motivation behind the attack are currently unknown, but the incident shows a growing trend of hacking and exploitation in the third quarter of 2024.

A homeowner's lawsuit for more than $170,000 was dismissed on appeal

A homeowner's attempt to sue his insurer for failing to cover his $170,000 loss in crypto fraud has been rejected by the US Court of Appeals, with a three-judge ruling that his case was dismissed without error.

On Oct. 24, Virginia District Court Judge Ali Sedagatpour of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that there was no contractual claim against Lemon's insurance because the homeowner's policy only covered “direct bodily injury” to property.

Sedagatpour sued Lemon Insurance in 2022, claiming the insurer was supposed to cover him under the policy for $170,000 in crypto stolen from him. The lawsuit is a rare case where a crypto user tried to claim that a home insurance policy was personal property and legally compel the insurer to cover fraudulent crypto losses.

The appellate judges said direct physical loss under Virginia law requires “present or imminent material destruction or material injury.” He added, “Since digital theft of digital currency does not result in ‘direct physical loss', there is no cover under that section for Sedagatpur's loss of cryptocurrency.”

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) at $67,075, Ether (ETH) at $2,484 and XRP at $0.51. According to CoinMarketCap, the total market cap is $2.29 trillion.

Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers for the week were Gotes Maximus (GOAT) at 75.97%, Safe (SAFE) at 67.21% and ApeCoin (APE) at 59.95%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week were Aerodrome Finance (AERO) at 22.72%, MANTRA (OM) at 16.46% and Mog Coin (MOG) at 15.66%. Be sure to read Cointelegraph's market analysis for more information on crypto prices.

The most memorable quotes

“I'm happy to say that I think Saylor's comments are crazy.”

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin

By the end of 2024, we expect Wall Street to replace Satoshi as the top Bitcoin wallet.

Bernstein research

“I remain optimistic that the regulatory framework law, FIT21, and the stable coin receipt will be considered as a lame duck.”

French Hill, United States Representative

“94% of Bitcoin supply is profitable, most coins bought at $55K.”

Axel Adler, independent crypto analyst

“Looking back, I regret it. I think we made a mistake by not supporting earlier, and we're trying to make up for it to some extent.”

Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse

“Whoever wins the election, I think it's very, very important that crypto regulation, sensible crypto regulation, and stablecoin regulation come to an end in a way that protects end users.”

Tether CEO Paolo Arduino

Forecast of the week

Bitcoin Analyst: $100K BTC Price In February ‘Totally For Reason'

Bitcoin is in the early stages of a bull run and the $100,000 BTC price could come within three months. In his latest market analysis on October 24, network economist Timothy Peterson “ignition” has already arrived for the new Bitcoin.

Bitcoin has spent nearly eight months consolidating since hitting a high of $73,800 in March. For Peterson, however, the real gains are yet to come – and he could see BTC/USD hit six figures for the first time in the next three months.

“Bitcoin's current run is not that different from previous price paths,” he wrote on X. “This puts a big dent in the ‘diminishing marginal returns' argument.

The accompanying chart compares BTC's price performance from the last macro low through the end of 2022 to previous cycles, and Peterson refutes the idea that Bitcoin investors see lower comparative returns each cycle.

“A move above the trend will send Bitcoin to $100k in 90 days. It's totally within reason,” he said.

FUD of the week

Arrested Crypto Fraudsters Blow Stolen Funds On Shark Tank, Wheels: Report

Five men allegedly spent the stolen money on a shark tank, private jet rides, sex workers and luxury cars in a $21.6 million crypto scam.

The criminals took $21.6 million (€20 million) from nearly 40,000 investors, including the EXW Wallet and EXW crypto token, Austrian news outlet Heutt reported on October 23.

Two of the defendants were sentenced to 5 years in prison, two were sentenced to 30 months and one to 18 months. Five others have been released and some continue to hide from authorities.

The fraud case at the Klagenfurt regional court was the largest in Austrian history, Heitt said. Judge Claudia Bandon-Ortner handed down the sentence on October 23 after a two-month trial and 300 hours of deliberations.

According to Hewitt, the scammers lived like they were in a Hollywood movie – partying in some of Dubai's “postate” clubs and traveling between cities on private jets. They even bought a shark tank in a villa, the backdrop behind which is a news and review site in Bali.

Radiant Capital hacker made off with $52 million in stolen funds

The hacker behind the recent theft of the financial protocol Radiant Capital may have moved the stolen funds from layer-2 protocols to Ethereum, obfuscating the environment.

On October 24, the blockchain security firm PeckShield “almost all” of the addresses connected to the Radiant Capital exploit, the Arbitrum-2 network, and the Binance BNB Chain exploit “almost all” bridged to the Ethereum network.

The total amount traded was about 20,500 Ether, worth $52 million, according to Peckshield.

On October 23, Radiant Capital urged users to protect their wallets by revoking approvals for smart contracts. “Failure to do so puts your money at risk,” he warned.

After more than $50 million was extorted from a cyber security breach on October 16, DeFi's cross-lending protocol shut down the lending market.

The Lazarus team exploited Chrome's vulnerability with a fake NFT game.

The North Korean hacking collective Lazarus used a fake blockchain-based game to exploit a zero-day vulnerability in the Google Chrome browser and install spyware that steals wallet credentials. Kaspersky Lab analysts noticed the exploit in May and reported it to Google, which fixed it.

Hacker is a fully playable multiplayer online battle platform game and has been promoted on LinkedIn and X. The game was called DeTankZone or DeTankWar and used tokens as tanks in international competition.

Users are infected with spyware from the website even if they don't download the game. The hackers modeled the game on the existing DeFiTankLand.

The hackers used a piece of malware called Manuscript followed by a previously unknown “type confusion of the V8 JavaScript engine”. It is the seventh zero-day vulnerability discovered in Chrome since mid-May 2024.

Boris Larin, chief security expert at Kaspersky, said:

“The sheer amount of effort put into this campaign suggests they had big plans, and the actual impact could be far-reaching, affecting consumers and businesses worldwide.”

Magazine stories of the week

Rise of Mert Mumtaz: ‘Perhaps more FUUD Solana than anyone else'

Mert Mumtaz, Solana's most popular fan, was a big factor in the blockchain comeback story. But he is not a top SOL expert.

India Blocks New Crypto Ban to Support CBDC, Lazar Group Strikes Again: Asia Express

India's on-again, off-again crypto ban resurfaces, Lazarus suspected of BingX hack and more.

A strange cult is growing around AI-created memecoin ‘religions': AI eye

Are people really serious about AI-created religions or is it just a meme? And professors say the AI ​​bubble is about to pop.

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Cointelegraph magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.