Today in Crypto: Fraudster Takes $100M in Solana Heist; Fed’s Barr Calls Crypto Deposits ‘Liquidity Risks’

A European Central Bank (ECB) study found that retail central bank digital currencies (rCBDCs), which would be used for everyday retail transactions, will see difficulties in terms of being accepted, with more research needed to see whatever undesirable side effects may happen.

The ECB said there would have to be a balance between keeping an order of priority for policy goals, making strategies to make the rCBDCs easy to adopt, and avoiding negative economic effects.

The study also found that there’s probably going to be an issue where banks will have to choose between preserving policy goals and ensuring a widespread adoption of rCBDCs.

Meanwhile, a crypto fraudster has stolen around $100 million after manipulating the token price of Solana-based DeFi platform Mango, using two accounts funded with USD Coin.

The exploit was discovered by blockchain auditing firm OtterSec, and later confirmed by Mango, with the latter company tweeting that the parties “have indicated a willingness to communicate.” Mango said its priorities were preventing further losses, ensuring depositors were made whole and trying to rebuild for the future.

In additional crypto news, the Federal Reserve vice chair for supervision Michael Barr has said volatility in cryptocurrency markets has shown the risks banks could face dealing with the digital assets.

Speaking at D.C. FinTech Week in Washington, he said banks could see deposit fluctuations linked to the broader developments in the crypto market at any given time. He added that there could be confusion caused by crypto asset firms’ misrepresentation about deposit insurance. And in stressful times, there might be more withdrawals from banks providing crypto asset services.

“This effort is not intended to discourage banks from providing access to banking products and services to businesses associated with crypto-assets,” he said. “Our work in this area is focused on ensuring risks are appropriately managed.”

Furthermore, payments platform Wirex now supports USD Coin on the Stellar blockchain in the Wirex app, letting users apply USD Coin in real life.

The announcement was made at Stellar’s 4th annual Meridian conference, and shows continuing collaboration between Wirex and the Stellar Development Foundation, the nonprofit organization supporting growth and development of the Stellar network.

The adoption of stablecoins more widely has seen them becoming more reliable alternatives for everyday payments.

Finally, BNY Mellon is now accepting cryptocurrency deposits for bitcoin and ether from some investors.

It will be taking the digital assets alongside traditional investments on the same platform, after forming an enterprise Digital Assets Unit last year which was approved this fall by the New York financial regulator.

Robin Vince, BNY Mellon president and CEO, said the bank’s massive scale would help it “reimagine financial markets” by taking digital assets.