Crypto Market Roundup: Ledger Phishing Attack, Lost Bitcoin, and ETF News
Key Insights
Last week, a new wave of phishing emails attempted to steal crypto from Ledger users.
A UK man is suing a city council for refusing permission to excavate a landfill where he mistakenly trashed a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins.
The FBI caught the hacker responsible for the fake Bitcoin ETF announcement on the SEC's Twitter account in January 2024.
Asset manager Canary Capital has just submitted a filing for a spot Litecoin ETF with the SEC.
A survey has shown that over 90% of El Salvadorans don't use Bitcoin for everyday transactions.
The crypto industry delivered exciting events last week.
Several incidents occurred between 13 and 20 October, including a new wave of scam emails targeting Ledger users in an attempt to steal their crypto.
There were also reports about a lawsuit between a man who mistakenly trashed a staggering 8,000 Bitcoins in Newport City.
The FBI eventually tracked down the hacker behind one of the biggest fake news scams of 2024.
Finally, remember how El Salvador was praised for being the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender?
Over 90% of the country's citizens don't even use cryptocurrency for everyday purchases.
Here are all of the major events in crypto from the previous week.
A New Wave of Scam Emails Hit Ledger Users
Last week brought up one of the biggest questions in crypto security—at least when self-custody is concerned.
To start with, it is worth mentioning that, according to Scam Sniffer, phishing scams stole over $127 million in crypto from investors in Q3 of 2024 alone.
September alone saw around $46 million lost.
This number would have increased by a great deal for October, considering the new scam emails sent to Ledger users.
Users were prompted to activate a security feature called "Ledger Clear Signing" within the emails before 31 October.
Luckily, there have been no reports so far of victims of this latest scam.
However, the hackers' actions only show the dangers of clicking on unfamiliar links and how much of a threat crypto phishing truly is.
UK Man Sues Newport City
Last week, reports surfaced about James Howell, a UK man who sued Newport City.
Howell expressed frustration at the city council for refusing to allow him to retrieve a Bitcoin hard drive from a local landfill.
It turns out that Howell mistakenly trashed this storage device over a decade ago.
On a 12 October report from WalesOnline, Howells is now seeking either compensation or permission to excavate the landfill.
He claims that the hard drive in question holds a staggering 8,000 Bitcoin, now valued at over $647 million.
Howells claims that he has been attempting to engage with the council in a “friendly and professional” manner, which were all rejected.
As a result, he is left with no choice but to sue the entire city.
“The council has been refusing permission to search or even agree to an in-person meeting” he explained “Unfortunately, the council has left me no choice but to issue proceedings against them.”
FBI Finally Tracked down the Hacker Behind the SEC’s Fake Bitcoin ETF Approval
Remember the event in January where the SEC's Twitter account was hacked and used to announce a fake Bitcoin ETF approval?
This fake announcement caused Bitcoin's price to spike by over $1,000, forcing SEC Chair Gary Gensler to publicly deny the post less than 15 minutes later.
It turns out that the hacker(s) responsible used a sim-swap attack to clone the SEC's phone number and use the fake sim card to bypass two-factor authentication.
Last week, 25-year-old Eric Council Jr. from Athens, Alabama was arrested by the FBI for the crime.
Council Jr. is now being charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud.
The crazy aspect of this story is that Council Jr. might be going to prison for nothing.
Only a day after the fake news was released, the SEC approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs for trading in the United States:
All of these assets now hold over $63.5 billion in AUM.
Canary Capital Is Seeking To Launch a Litecoin ETF
In more exciting news, Asset Manager Canary Capital has filed preliminary documents with the SEC for a spot Litecoin ETF.
This filing is called an S-1 and proposes to hold spot $LTC according to the 12 October filing.
The ETF will also closely track the performance of the CoinDesk Litecoin Price Index (LTX) and allow traders to access the cryptocurrency through a proxy.
The LTC ETF filing
Interestingly, on 9 October, the same asset manager filed for an XRP ETF in the same manner.
This also comes amid a similar filing from BitWise, which ETF Store president Nate Geraci has called a "call option on November election."
In essence, crypto is expected to boom throughout the rest of the year, with or without the approval of these filings.
Over 90% of El Salvadorians Don't Even Use Bitcoin.
El Salvador was the world's first country to approve Bitcoin as legal tender.
While this move has received generally positive sentiment from other world governments and even the country’s citizens:
A new survey has shown that more than half of the entire country's population does not transact with Bitcoin.
According to the reports from a survey carried out by the San Salvador University Francisco Gavidia, only around 7.5% of the 1,224 adult El Salvador citizens have used Bitcoin.
Fewer people use Bitcoin for transactions.
A similar survey from last year by the University of Central America’s public opinion institute also showed that around 88% of Salvadorans didn’t use Bitcoin for transactions.
Finally, the majority of the respondents stated that industry and education should come before Bitcoin as the "main bet" for the nation's future.
Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information, but it will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.