The hacker group behind the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack received over $90 million in bitcoin ransom payments over the last nine months from 47 victims before the group shut down last week, CNBC reported.
The attack, believed to have been done by cyber terrorist group DarkSide, forced the company to shut down around 5,500 miles of pipeline. That cut down on gas delivery in several states, according to the report.
London-based blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said Friday (May 14) that it had identified the bitcoin wallet DarkSide used to collect the bitcoin ransom payments, the report stated. That was the same day DarkSide closed down, citing the loss of access to its servers and its crypto wallets being emptied.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin analysts said they think the cryptocurrency’s deepest selloff will likely intensify, BloombergQuint reported.
Evercore ISI’s Rich Ross said he thinks prices will likely fall back to the 200-day moving average, the report stated. That would follow the path of other speculative assets and would put Bitcoin back to a $40,000 value. Currently it’s valued at just under $44,000.
But others will be looking for patterns of “lower highs and lower lows,” according to the report. Those people think that Tesla Founder Elon Musk’s tweets will likely keep traditional investors out of the proceedings.
Bitcoin is up over 300 percent since last May, the report stated, and some newer crypto believers have been shaken by the speed of the recent rout, throwing some doubt at the idea that crypto is maturing.
Lastly, FanDuel’s new free fantasy NBA contest with a series of NBA Top Shot non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as prizes was its most popular ever that was not part of a larger “tentpole” event like March Madness or Super Bowl, Decrypt reported.
The event was announced last week and in partnership with Dapper Labs. This was also the first time FanDuel offered NFTs as prizes, according to the report.
Top Shot, just like physical trading cards, has collectors purchasing “packs” with numerous “moments” they can potentially re-sell for thousands of dollars, the report stated.
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