Today in Crypto: Chileans Stablecoin Use up 50% as Economy Dips; Portugal’s Banks Close Crypto Accounts

Hackers have returned $9 million to cross-chain bridge Nomad after it was exploited for $190.4 million Tuesday (Aug. 2), Coindesk wrote.

The amount returned was around 4.75% of what was lost.

Nomad said it’s “actively working with a leading chain analysis firm and law enforcement to trace funds. All involved are prepared to take necessary action in the coming days.”

Meanwhile, Chilean residents have been using stablecoins to protect assets from the high inflation of recent times and the lessening value of the peso, Coindesk wrote.

Chile-based exchange CryptoMarket said it had seen a 50% increase in stablecoin transactions of the top two stablecoins, tether and USD coin, during the second quarter of the year.

CryptoMarket Chile country manager Eduardo Pérez de Castro said stablecoins “represent 30% of users’ total purchases, and what they mostly choose to buy if it is their first time using the platform.”

Furthermore, Binance has said its cofounder Yi He will now be the head of Binance Labs, its venture capital arm and incubator, a press release said.

Binance CEO CZ (Changpeng Zhao) said Yi had been involved in Labs since it was started — and has “played a pivotal role in identifying early-stage projects.” CZ added that the idea was to disrupt institutions that “no longer serve society effectively.”

In addition, some Portuguese banks have been closing digital currency exchanges’ accounts, which could be trouble for the country’s status as a friendly place for crypto, Bloomberg wrote.

Banco Comercial Portugues, which is the biggest listed bank in the country, shut down all of crypto exchange CriptoLoja’s accounts last week, and Banco Santander did the same. According to Pedro Borges, co-founder and CEO of CriptoLoja, the banks didn’t provide any official explanations for that.

Finally, Wall Street’s earnings expectations for Coinbase and Block due to the still-lagging crypto economy, Reuters wrote.

The market’s troubles have only expedited the pain for the companies, which have also been seeing higher costs and rising rates.

Coinbase is likely to report an adjusted loss for Q2, and Block reportedly will post a 70% drop in adjusted profit, Reuters reported.