November 2023 was the most “damaging” month for the crypto industry as hackers and criminals walked away with $363 million in heists, according to Blockchain security group, CertiK
CertiK reported in a post on X (previously Twitter) on November 30, 2023 that exploits alone cost $316.4 million, with flash loans and exit scams costing another $45.5 million, and $1.1 million, respectively.
The Poloniex and HTX/Heco Bridge exploits and the KyberSwap loan attack were the three largest incidents in November, CertiK said. The Poloniex and HTX/Heco Bridge losses totalled $131.4 million and $113.3 million, respectively. The third-largest exploit was imposed on a single victim, who suffered a $27 million loss as a result of a phishing attack. Elsewhere, the $45 million KyberSwap attack accounted for nearly all of the month’s damage from flash loan attacks.
The most recent monthly amount has eclipsed a previous high of $329 million in September 2023, owing primarily to the $200 million Mixin Network attack. As of the end of November, around $1.7 billion has been lost in 2023 to exploits, exit scams, and flash loan attacks. According to CertiK, this accounts for only 54 per cent of the crypto drained in the full year 2022, when $3.7 billion was drained to crypto occurrences, whereas the 2021 losses amounted to $1.7 billion.
Swiss Crypto Bank Seba Rebrands To Amina
Seba, a major Swiss cryptocurrency-enabled bank, is changing its name as it expands its trading services globally. Seba Bank AG has changed its name to Amina Bank AG, the company said on November 30, 2023.
“We chose to change our name from Seba Bank due to similarities with the Swedish SEB Bank,” Amina CEO Franz Bergmueller told Cointelegraph. He said that SEB Bank and SEBA Bank had agreed to a name change in 2023.
According to Seba Bank, the new name, Amina, is derived from the phrase “transamination”, which means the transference of one component to another, and refers to the firm’s objective to bring together various elements of traditional, digital, and crypto banking.
While the current name is based on the concept of combining several sorts of banking, Amina's former name, Seba, is said to be a play on the name of its creator, Sebastien Merillat. “I’m just passionate about technology and seeing how it will work,” Merillat has said in an interview in 2019.
SEC Solicits Comments On Fidelity’s Spot Ether ETF Application
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has invited public comment on a proposed rule change that would allow asset management firm Fidelity to issue shares of its spot Ether exchange-traded fund (ETF). The SEC stated in a November 30, 2023 notice that “interested persons” may comment on the Fidelity offering, which proposes that Cboe BZX Exchange list and trade shares of the Fidelity Ethereum Fund.
Fidelity applied for approval of the fund for the first time on November 17, 2023 becoming one of many corporations vying for a place crypto ETF in the United States.
According to the petition, investors in other countries, “including Germany, Switzerland, and France”, could acquire exposure to Ether through exchanges that offer exchange-traded products. After the filing is published in the Federal Register, the public will have 21 days to offer comments.
