Notorious crypto scammer Monkey Drainer retires

Many bizarre occurrences have come up in the crypto space recently, but a phishing scammer announcing retirement and even advising budding crypto criminals is unprecedented. The crypto phishing scammer behind some of the most high-profile and high-value Web3 thefts, Monkey Drainer, claims to have packed up shop, saying it was “time to move on to something better.”

Away from Monkey Drainer, the much-anticipated Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade has been shifted till April. Initially estimated for late March, the Shanghai upgrade will now likely be deployed sometime within the first two weeks of April, according to an announcement at an Ethereum developer meeting on Tuesday.

Read also:

All you need to know about Ethereum’s upcoming Shanghai Upgrade

Here are major crypto stories from around the world this week

DCG lost over $1 billion in 2022

One of the top crypto industry giants, Digital Currency Group (DCG), released its 2022 financial report on Wednesday, revealing a loss of $1.1 billion. The firm indicates that the bankruptcy of Genesis and the overall crypto market crash affected its revenue.

In the financial report, the crypto giant lost $24 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, while its total revenue was $143 million. Its consolidated revenue for the entire 2022 was $719 million.

On the positive side, DCG restructured its promissory note worth $1.1 billion, due in 2032. It is also planning to issue new redeemable and convertible stocks. The firm also disclosed that it had achieved a milestone in restructuring Genesis. 

Monkey Drainer retires 

The scammer with the pseudonym Monkey Drainer posted on their Telegram channel on Wednesday that they “will be shutting down immediately” and all “files, servers and devices” related to the drainer “will be destroyed immediately” and it “will not return.”

Monkey Drainer advised budding “young cyber criminals”, saying they shouldn’t “lose themselves in the pursuit of easy money” and only those “with the highest level of dedication” should operate a “large scale cybercrime” outfit.

Monkey Drainer is understood to have operated since late 2022 and is estimated to have stolen up to $13 million worth of cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

Binance will not lay off staff

Crypto exchange Binance is “not planning any layoffs” and is instead trying to fill another 500 roles by the end of June, according to a Binance spokesperson in a conversation with Cointelegraph on Thursday. 

The comments came after a huge spike in crypto layoffs in January, mostly from crypto exchanges. The Binance representative said in a statement:

“As of today, we are actively hiring for more than 500 roles with the goal of filling them by the end of H1 […] We are not planning any layoffs.”

In January, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the firm planned a hiring spree in 2023 by increasing its headcount by 15 – 30%. 

Shanghai Upgrade will come up in April

Ethereum developers have pushed back the highly-anticipated Shanghai Upgrade to sometime within the first two weeks of April. During a meeting, Ethereum core developers came to a consensus. 

According to Tim Beiko, Ethereum core developer and project coordinator, said via Twitter on Thursday:

“For mainnet we usually want to give people at least two weeks after the announcement, so imagine Goerli happens on the 14th, everything goes well, on the 16th we agree to move forward with mainnet — I think the earliest that puts us is like the first week of April.”

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Visa and Mastercard to delay crypto partnerships amidst uncertainties

The long-awaited Shanghai mainnet upgrade will allow the phased withdrawal of Ethereum staked from the Beacon Chain.

Blur overtakes OpenSea 

According to data from DappRadar, NFT marketplace Blur overtook rival OpenSea in transaction volume and generated over $1.3 billion worth of Ethereum NFT trades in February.

The figure effectively represents a 194.21% increase from January. The surge in the volume of Blur follows an airdrop of its $BLUR governance token to NFT traders who earned rewards through the marketplace and those who traded elsewhere ahead of the launch.

The emerging marketplace is teasing its next Season two token airdrop. Traders who bid close to the cheapest available NFT for a particular project will have a better chance for the upcoming freebies.

That is all from us this week. See you same time next week!