Category Archives: Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency Companies Targeted in Sophisticated 3CX Supply Chain Attack – The Hacker News
The adversary behind the supply chain attack targeting 3CX deployed a second-stage implant specifically singling out a small number of cryptocurrency companies.
Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, which has been internally tracking the versatile backdoor under the name Gopuram since 2020, said it observed an increase in the number of infections in March 2023 coinciding with the 3CX breach.
Gopuram's primary function is to connect to a command-and-control (C2) server and await further instructions that allow the attackers to interact with the victim's file system, create processes, and launch as many as eight in-memory modules.
The backdoor's links to North Korea stem from the fact that it "co-existed on victim machines with AppleJeus, a backdoor attributed to the Korean-speaking threat actor Lazarus," detailing an attack on an unnamed crypto firm located in Southeast Asia in 2020.
The targeting of cryptocurrency companies is another telltale sign of the Lazarus Group's involvement, given the threat actor's recurring focus on the financial industry to generate illicit profits for the sanctions-hit nation.
Kaspersky further said it identified a C2 overlap with a server ("wirexpro[.]com") that was previously identified as employed in an AppleJeus campaign documented by Malwarebytes in December 2022.
"As the Gopuram backdoor has been deployed to less than ten infected machines, it indicates that attackers used Gopuram with surgical precision," the company pointed out, adding the highest infection rates have been detected in Brazil, Germany, Italy, and France.
While the attack chain discovered so far entails the use of rogue installers to distribute an information stealer (known as ICONIC Stealer), the latest findings suggest that the ultimate goal of the campaign may have been to infect targets with the full-fledged modular backdoor.
That said, it's not known how successful the campaign has been, and if it has led to the actual theft of sensitive data or cryptocurrency. It, however, raises the possibility that ICONIC Stealer was used as a reconnaissance utility to cast a wide net and identify targets of interest for follow-on exploitation.
The development comes as BlackBerry revealed that "the initial phase of this operation took place somewhere between the end of summer and the beginning of fall 2022."
A majority of the attack attempts, per the Canadian company, have been registered in Australia, the U.S., and the U.K., with healthcare, pharma, IT, and finance emerging as the top targeted sectors.
It's currently unclear how the threat actor obtained initial access to the 3CX network, and if it entailed the exploitation of a known or unknown vulnerability. The compromise is being tracked under the identifier CVE-2023-29059.
Evidence collected to date indicates that the attackers poisoned 3CX's development environment and delivered trojanized versions of the legitimate app to the company's downstream customers in a SolarWinds or Kaseya-like supply chain attack.
One of the malicious components responsible for retrieving the info-stealer, a library named "d3dcompiler_47.dll," has also been spotted weaponizing a 10-year-old Windows flaw (CVE-2013-3900) to inject arbitrary code into a DLL without invalidating its signature.
A point worth noting here is that the same technique was adopted by a ZLoader malware campaign unearthed by Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point Research in January 2022.
Multiple versions of the desktop app 18.12.407 and 18.12.416 for Windows and 18.11.1213, 18.12.402, 18.12.407, and 18.12.416 for macOS have been impacted. 3CX has since pinned the attack on a "highly experienced and knowledgeable hacker."
CrowdStrike has tied the incident to a North Korea-aligned nation-state group it tracks under the moniker Labyrinth Chollima, a sub-cluster within the Lazarus Group.
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Cryptocurrency Companies Targeted in Sophisticated 3CX Supply Chain Attack - The Hacker News
Massive 3CX Supply-Chain Hack Targeted Cryptocurrency Firms – WIRED
Software supply-chain attacks, in which hackers corrupt widely used applications to push their own code to thousands or even millions of machines, have become a scourge, both insidious and potentially huge in the breadth of their impact. But the latest major software supply-chain attack, in which hackers who appear to be working on behalf of the North Korean government hid their code in the installer for a common VoIP application known as 3CX, seems so far to have had a prosaic goal: breaking into a handful of cryptocurrency companies.
Researchers at Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky today revealed that they identified a small number of cryptocurrency-focused firms as at least some of the victims of the 3CX software supply-chain attack that's unfolded over the past week. Kaspersky declined to name any of those victim companies, but it notes that they're based in western Asia.
Security firms CrowdStrike and SentinelOne last week pinned the operation on North Korean hackers, who compromised 3CX installer software that's used by 600,000 organizations worldwide, according to the vendor. Despite the potentially massive breadth of that attack, which SentinelOne dubbed Smooth Operator, Kaspersky has now found that the hackers combed through the victims infected with its corrupted software to ultimately target fewer than 10 machinesat least as far as Kaspersky could observe so farand that they seemed to be focusing on cryptocurrency firms with surgical precision.
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This was all just to compromise a small group of companies, maybe not just in cryptocurrency, but what we see is that one of the interests of the attackers is cryptocurrency companies, says Georgy Kucherin, a researcher on Kaspersky's GReAT team of security analysts. Cryptocurrency companies should be especially concerned about this attack because they are the likely targets, and they should scan their systems for further compromise.
Kaspersky based that conclusion on the discovery that, in some cases, the 3CX supply-chain hackers used their attack to ultimately plant a versatile backdoor program known as Gopuram on victim machines, which the researchers describe as the final payload in the attack chain. Kaspersky says the appearance of that malware also represents a North Korean fingerprint: It has seen Gopuram used before on the same network as another piece of malware, known as AppleJeus, linked to North Korean hackers. It's also previously seen Gopuram connect to the same command-and-control infrastructure as AppleJeus, and has seen Gopuram used previously to target cryptocurrency firms. All of that suggests not only that the 3CX attack was carried out by North Korean hackers, but that it may have been intended to breach cryptocurrency firms in order to steal from those companies, a common tactic of North Korean hackers ordered to raise money for the regime of Kim Jong-Un.
It has become a recurring theme for sophisticated state-sponsored hackers to exploit software supply chains to access the networks of thousands of organizations, only to winnow their focus down to a few victims. In 2020's notorious Solar Winds spy campaign, for instance, Russian hackers compromised the IT monitoring software Orion to push malicious updates to about 18,000 victims, but they appear to have stolen data from only a few dozen of them. In the earlier supply chain compromise of the CCleaner software, the Chinese hacker group known as Barium or WickedPanda compromised as many as 700,000 PCs, but similarly chose to target a relatively short list of tech firms.
This is becoming very common, says Kucherin, who also worked on the SolarWinds analysis and found clues linking that supply-chain attack to a known Russian group. During supply-chain attacks, the threat actor conducts reconnaissance on the victims, collecting information, then they filter out this information, selecting victims to deploy a second-stage malware. That filtering process is designed to help the hackers avoid detection, Kucherin points out, since deploying the second-stage malware to too many victims allows the attack to be more easily detected.
But Kucherin notes that the 3CX supply-chain attack was nonetheless detected relatively quickly, compared to others. The installation of the initial malware that the hackers appeared to use for reconnaissance was detected by companies like CrowdStrike and SentinelOne last week, less than a month after it was deployed. They tried to be stealthy, but they failed, Kucherin says. Their first-stage implants were discovered.
Given that detection, it's not clear how successful the campaign has been. Kucherin says Kaspersky hasn't seen any evidence of actual theft of cryptocurrency from the companies it saw targeted with the Gopuram malware.
But given the hundreds of thousands of potential victims of the 3CX supply-chain compromise, no one should conclude yet that crypto companies alone were targeted, says Tom Hegel, a security researcher with SentinelOne. The current theory at this point is that the attackers did initially target crypto firms to get into those high-value organizations, Hegel says. Im going to guess that once they saw the success of this, and the kinds of networks they were in, other objectives probably came into play.
For now, Hegel says, no single security firm can see the whole shape of the 3CX hacking campaign or definitively state its goals. But if North Korean hackers really did compromise a piece of software used by 600,000 organizations around the world and use it just to try to steal cryptocurrency from a handful of them, they may have thrown away the keys to a much larger kingdom.
This is all unfolding very quickly. I think well continue to gain better insight into the victims, Hegel says. But from an attacker standpoint, if all they did was target crypto firms, this was a dramatic wasted opportunity.
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Massive 3CX Supply-Chain Hack Targeted Cryptocurrency Firms - WIRED
IRCI survey finds over 43% of Singaporeans now own cryptocurrency – InvestorsObserver
2023-04-04 01:59:53 ET
According to a recent survey conducted by Independent Reserve, Singapores first regulated cryptocurrency exchange, 43% of the 1,500 respondents from Singapore reported owning some amount of cryptocurrencies. A slight increase from the previous year when the number was estimated to be around 40%, while adoption levels were at 43% during the 2021 bull run.
77% of Singaporeans revealed that they have their investment in two or more cryptocurrency assets. Diversifying portfolios was the primary reason behind their investments.
In addition to the rising adoption of cryptocurrencies in Singapore, there has also been an increase in knowledge and awareness about the cryptocurrency industry. Per Independent Reserves survey details, 91% of Singaporean respondents reported being aware of crypto assets. Bitcoin was found to be the most recognized cryptocurrency, with 87% of respondents identifying it, followed by Ethereum at 51%.
Lasanka Perera, CEO of Independent Reserve, believes it to be an encouraging indication for the industry as several blockchains and projects have the potential to be used as real-world applications and use cases. He said:
The rising popularity of altcoins shows that more Singaporeans are beginning to gain more awareness about other cryptocurrencies apart from Bitcoin. This is a promising sign for the industry as more investors gain exposure to various types of blockchains and projects that have innovative utility and potential to be adopted more widely for real-world applications and use cases.
The survey further revealed that 54% of the crypto-aware Singaporeans entered into the digital ecosystem with the objective of diversifying their portfolios. Interestingly, the number rose higher for investors who have been in the ecosystem for more than five years. About 68% of Singaporeans with 5+ years of experience, mentioned portfolio diversification as their primary motivation. Getting rich was the second-most cited reason at 48%.
Independent Reserves survey also highlighted that half of the people who entered the cryptocurrency market in the past 12 months were influenced by family members, friends, or social media. This indicates that word of mouth and online networks have a significant impact on crypto adoption in Singapore.
Even though, the markets instability last year has had a short-term impact on investors confidence in digital assets, still, those Singaporeans who made their investment for the long term are content with their decisions. About 72% of long-term cryptocurrency hodlers said that they would even recommend cryptocurrencies to their friends and family members.
About 78% of those who have been involved in the ecosystem for more than five years, or 78%, saw the value of their digital assets grow. However, 40% of new investors with an experience of less than a year, reported their losses. This indicates that long-term investment in digital assets has a better chance of success than a short-term investment.
According to Independent Reserves survey, there has been an increase in female participation in the cryptocurrency market. This year, 37% of female respondents reported investing in cryptocurrencies, up 7% from the previous year.
Furthermore, women have performed better than men in terms of profitability, with 76% of female investors reporting having made money or breaking even, compared to 72% of male investors.
Interestingly, a quarter of female respondents have allocated over 20% of their wealth to cryptocurrencies, with 48% planning to invest more in the future.
This shows a growing interest and confidence in digital assets among women, which is a positive trend for the industrys overall diversity and inclusion.
The post IRCI survey finds over 43% of Singaporeans now own cryptocurrency appeared first on Invezz .
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IRCI survey finds over 43% of Singaporeans now own cryptocurrency - InvestorsObserver
These Cryptocurrency Blockchains Had the Most Active Addresses … – Watcher Guru
According to cryptocurrency analysis firm Nansen, six blockchains saw over a million active addresses in March 2023. As per the data, Binances BNB chain had the highest number of active addresses, with 13.3 million users. BNB is followed by Solana (SOL) and Ethereum (ETH), with 5.8 million and 5.2 million, respectively. Polygon (MATIC) had 3.9 million active addresses, while Arbitrum had 2.2 million. Fantom finished the million list with 1 million active addresses in March.
In March, 6 blockchains had more than one million active addresses*:
BNB Chain: 13.3MSolana (Wallets): 5.8MEthereum: 5.2MPolygon: 3.9MArbitrum: 2.2MFantom: 1M
*Addresses that have executed a transaction. pic.twitter.com/DUFGR6ByWT
BNBs lead was fueled by Binance and PancakeSwap users. However, other Web3 projects also contributed to the spike, such as Lifeform, Link 3 and Space ID. Binances increase in users may have resulted from the FUD around a new lawsuit. Many people began taking their cryptocurrencies out of the exchange in fear. The US Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) accused Binance, its CEO Changpeng Zhao, and its former CCO, Samuel Lim, of breaking trading and derivatives regulations. Binance Coin (BNB), the companys native cryptocurrency, fell as much as 8% on the same day, from $330 to lows of about $300.
PancakeSwap DEX, on the other hand, has released its version 3 on BNB and Ethereum. Anticipation for the launch may have triggered an increase in users.
For Solana (SOL), Raydium Protocol was a major contributor. The STEPN Web3 application also played a significant role, along with Orca, a leading cryptocurrency marketplace.
On Ethereum, zkSync and Starknet saw a 1322% and 805% increase in users. According to Nansen, this is likely due to airdrop farmers bridging to other chains.
According to Nansen, Arbitrum saw a 8198% increase in users for the Gridex DEX. Bitkeep saw an increase of 7009%, while WINR Protocol saw an increase of 6340%. The Rhino.fi DEX also saw a whopping increase of 4601% in users.
Polygon (MATIC) and stablecoin cryptocurrencies USDC and USDT had a big role to play in the increased number of active addresses. Moreover, Bitget also made a significant contribution to the active wallet spike.
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These Cryptocurrency Blockchains Had the Most Active Addresses ... - Watcher Guru
SEC charges celebrities improperly disclosed cryptocurrency … – The Ticker
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged cryptocurrency asset entrepreneur Justin Sun with artificially inflating his companies trading value and selling unregistered assets.
Several celebrities were also charged with civil cryptocurrency violations for illegally accepting payments from Sun to promote his unregistered cryptocurrencies.
In its complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the SEC said it launched a suit against Suns companies TRON Foundation, BitTorrent Foundation and Rainberry Inc. for selling the unregistered cryptocurrency asset securities Tronix and BitTorrent and engaging in wash trading since 2017.
Wash trading entails an investor buying and selling the same security to manipulate the market and increase trading volume. This practice became illegal under the Commodity Exchange Act in 1936.
As alleged in the complaint, Sun and others used an age-old playbook to mislead and harm investors by first offering securities without complying with registration and disclosure requirements and then manipulating the market for those very securities, Gurbir Grewal, director of the SECs Division of Enforcement, said in a March 22 press release.
The press release also explained that Sun had his employees conduct over 600,000 wash trades of Tronix between the two crypto asset trading platforms he controlled, generating $31 million in proceeds through these sales.
The agency also alleges that Sun paid eight celebrities to post about the cryptocurrency asset securities Tronix and BitTorrent and encourage people to invest, but instructed them to not disclose that they were paid or how much, which is illegal. The list includes: actress Lindsey Lohan; YouTube personality-turned-boxer Jake Paul; musicians Soulja Boy, Austin Mahone, Ne-Yo and Akon; and adult film actress Michele Mason.
These celebrities allegedly used their social media platforms to draw fans to Tron-affiliated Telegram and Discord channels and create BitTorrent accounts in exchange for TRX and BTT distributions, according to a March 24 litigation release.
A representative for Lohan told NBC News that she had been unaware of the disclosure requirement but had agreed to pay a fine to resolve the matter.
Six of the celebrities agreed to settle the charges for illegally touting securities and paid a total sum of $400,000, with the exceptions of Soulja Boy and Mahone. Under the settlement, the celebrities did not need to confirm or deny the SECs allegations.
On the day the SEC announced the lawsuits, the price in TRON fell 13%.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler discussed the takeaways from this case.
This case demonstrates again the high risk investors face when crypto asset securities are offered and sold without proper disclosure, he said in a statement, as reported by NPR.
Additionally, the SEC chair said this case will serve as a reminder for celebrities who promote cryptocurrency assets.
The law requires you to disclose to the public from whom and how much you are getting paid to promote investment in securities, Gensler said, according to Forbes. You cant lie to investors when you tout a security.
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SEC charges celebrities improperly disclosed cryptocurrency ... - The Ticker
Soluna Reports $24.4 million in Cryptocurrency Revenue in Full … – WV News
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Soluna Reports $24.4 million in Cryptocurrency Revenue in Full ... - WV News
Cryptocurrency Hedera Falls More Than 3% In 24 hours – Benzinga
Over the past 24 hours, Hedera's HBAR/USD price has fallen 3.41% to $0.07. This is opposite to its positive trend over the past week where it has experienced a 19.0% gain, moving from $0.06 to its current price.
The chart below compares the price movement and volatility for Hedera over the past 24 hours (left) to its price movement over the past week (right). The gray bands are Bollinger Bands, measuring the volatility for both the daily and weekly price movements. The wider the bands are, or the larger the gray area is at any given moment, the larger the volatility.
The trading volume for the coin has increased 118.0% over the past week while the overall circulating supply of the coin has increased 0.57% to over 30.57 billion which makes up an estimated 61.14% of its max supply, which is 50.00 billion. The current market cap ranking for HBAR is #31 at $2.15 billion.
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This article was generated by Benzinga's automated content engine and reviewed by an editor.
2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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Cryptocurrency Hedera Falls More Than 3% In 24 hours - Benzinga
Police warning public of cryptocurrency scam – Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The New Brunswick RCMP is warning the public of an investment scam involving cryptocurrency that is targeting New Brunswickers.
In recent months, the New Brunswick RCMP's Financial Crime Unit has investigated a number of reports of an investment scam involving cryptocurrency in which victims have sustained large losses of money. Victims are contacted by fraudsters by phone or text message, and are offered an opportunity to invest in cryptocurrency and promised a high rate of return.
Once the victim starts to transfer money, the fraudster entices them to continue to invest more through repeated communication. The victim may even be able to withdraw small amounts of their investment. Once the victim asks for a larger withdrawal, they are told they have to pay tax on their investment balance to have the funds released. Once the tax payment is sent, they are told that they will receive their money within twenty-four hours. After this, more excuses are made to convince the victim to send additional funds to the fraudster to release their investment. This will continue until the victim runs out of money or refuses to send more at which point the fraudster stops all communication and the victim never receives their withdrawal.
To help protect yourself from investment scams:
If you are a victim of an investment scam, or any type of scam, please contact your local police department to file a report. Information can also be provided anonymously through Crime Stoppers at1-800-222-TIPS (8477), by downloading the secure P3Mobile App, or by Secure Web Tips at http://www.crimenb.ca.
The investigation is ongoing.
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Police warning public of cryptocurrency scam - Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Improving Liquidity in the Cryptocurrency Markets – Digital Journal
The crypto market is extremely popular right now, and they provide a new way of doing things that is beneficial. Before jumping on the cryptocurrency bandwagon, you should first grasp some fundamental concepts. Here we will cover a crucial concept many people need clarification on cryptocurrency liquidity. What does it mean? How significant is it? What can be done to improve overall crypto market liquidity? So, continue reading.
What Exactly Is Liquidity, and Why Do Crypto Traders and Investors Need It?
The ease with which an asset can be bought or sold without affecting its price this is liquidity. In other words, it assesses how much buying and selling pressure an asset can withstand before its price falls.
In an illiquid market, there are few buyers and sellers, so orders can take a long time to fill or must be filled at prices that differ significantly from the quoted prices. A liquid market has many buyers and sellers, and orders can be filled quickly at prices close to the quoted price. Liquidity is critical for cryptocurrency traders and investors because it affects their ability to buy or sell an asset quickly without fear of large price swings.
Which assets are more liquid crypto or traditional assets such as stocks and bonds.? Of course, crypto assets. It is because the crypto market is still relatively new, with fewer participants trading in it. Liquidity is expected to increase as more people enter the market and trade crypto assets.
Also, some crypto assets have greater liquidity than others. For example, Bitcoin liquidity is higher than that of smaller altcoins because Bitcoin sees more trading activity and is accepted by more exchanges. Because of its popularity and use in ICOs, Ethereum is also fairly liquid. However, some altcoins can be illiquid, with little trading activity and few exchanges listing them.
How Does Liquidity Impact The Prices of Digital Assets and Crypto?
As previously stated, in the cryptocurrency markets, liquidity is often defined as the ability to buy or sell large amounts of an asset without significantly affecting the price. However, another aspect of liquidity frequently overlooked is its impact on price.
While it is true that increased liquidity generally leads to more stable prices, there are times when excess liquidity can lead to lower prices. It is because when there are more buyers than sellers, the cost of an asset falls to find equilibrium. The same situation when there are more sellers than buyers. In this case, to reach equilibrium, the assets price will rise.
How to determine when liquidity Has a positive or negative impact on prices?
The order book is the simplest way to accomplish this. The order book lists all buy and sell orders for a particular asset. If there are more buy orders than sell orders, we can expect the asset to be in higher demand than supply. It usually results in higher prices. But, there are more sell orders than buy orders, and there is more supply than demand for the asset. It usually results in lower prices.
Moreover, remember that the order book is only sometimes a perfect indicator of liquidity because it only shows orders that have been placed and not those that have been executed. If there are many buy orders, but few sell orders, this could indicate that people are buying but not selling. In this case, prices would remain high. The volume of an asset provides the most accurate picture of liquidity.
The volume of an asset is the number of units traded in a given time. In general, the higher the volume, the more liquid the asset. It is because high volume indicates that a lot of people are buying and selling the asset, which means that it is easy to buy or sell large amounts without significantly affecting the price.
On the other hand, low volume indicates that only some people buy or sell the asset, which means it may be difficult to buy or sell large amounts without significantly moving the price.
If the volume of an asset increases, it generally indicates that the asset is becoming more liquid and that prices are more likely to rise. In contrast, if the volume of an asset decreases, it generally indicates that the asset is becoming less liquid, and prices are more likely to fall.
Other factors like news, regulation, and market sentiment can impact an assets price. However, one of the most important factors to consider when forecasting price movements in cryptocurrency markets is liquidity.
What you can do taken to Improve crypto liquidity?
Compared to other asset classes, the overall liquidity of the crypto market is low. It is primarily due to a lack of institutional participation. While there are numerous ways to improve liquidity, the following are some of the most effective:
It can make trading between buyers and sellers easier and faster, increasing overall liquidity. Improving market infrastructure, such as exchanges, trading platforms, and payment systems, is one way to increase liquidity for crypto exchange.
More people becoming aware of cryptos and understanding how to use them will increase demand for these assets, resulting in greater liquidity. Public awareness of cryptocurrencies and how they operate is another way to increase liquidity is to raise.
Healthy competition among exchanges and trading platforms can also aid in improving liquidity. This is because when multiple platforms are available, each one will compete for users business, which can result in better deals and more favorable terms for users.
These investors have deep pockets and are more likely to keep their investments for the long term. As a result, their participation can contribute to much-needed market stability and increased overall liquidity. Attracting institutional investors, such as hedge funds, venture capitalists, and family offices, is one of the most effective ways to improve liquidity.
While some may see government regulation as a barrier to the cryptocurrency market, it can help improve liquidity. It is because investors are more likely to invest when they have greater confidence in the markets stability and legality. As a result, increasing government regulation could be a critical step in improving crypto liquidity.
Finally, encouraging innovation within the space is another way to improve crypto market liquidity. It can be accomplished by investing in new technologies or developing new financial products to meet the needs of todays investors. By encouraging innovation, the crypto market can attract more attention and investment, resulting
Final thought
Liquidity is essential for any investor but is imperative in cryptocurrency markets. Crypto markets are still relatively new and need more infrastructure and institutional involvement in other asset classes. As a result, buying or selling large amounts of cryptocurrencies without increasing prices can be difficult.
Taking the necessary steps to make the cryptocurrency market more liquid and accessible to a broader range of investors can lead to more excellent stability and long-term development.
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Improving Liquidity in the Cryptocurrency Markets - Digital Journal
Cryptocurrency Donations Increased by 41% During Bear Market – Watcher Guru
Cryptocurrency donations are beginning to become a new trend. According to a report by The Giving Block, cryptocurrency philanthropy remained strong in 2022, despite the market collapse. For every dollar of Bitcoins market value in 2022, cryptocurrency donors gave $172. In comparison to 2021, the statistic reflects a 41% rise.
As per the report, a total of $125 million worth of crypto have been donated via The Giving Block to date. The largest donation processed by the platform is a whopping $9.4 million. Meanwhile, the average size of a tax-optimized crypto donation is $6295. The average cryptocurrency donation was roughly 31 times bigger than the typical internet donation made by charitable organizations.
In 2022, 1052 non-profits joined The Giving Block to fundraise crypto, the report stated. Moreover, the average crypto donation per non-profit is $26000. The most donated crypto asset in 2022 was USDC, whereas in 2021 it was Ethereum (ETH), and Bitcoin (BTC) in the previous years.
Despite the sharp fall in the cryptocurrency market starting in mid-November 2021, benefactors to the industry donated millions of dollars. It included humanitarian aid to Ukraine in February and March 2022. In June, donors were very charitable, especially to groups that assist and advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community. 33% of the donations were made in Q4 2022, the customary year-end charity season for the nonprofit sector. Given that the FTX controversy surfaced in November and added to the markets already turbulent year, this consistent pattern of donating is extraordinary.
Similar to stocks, donors do not have to pay capital gains tax on donated cryptocurrencies. If someone has appreciated cryptocurrency in the U.S., giving cryptocurrency can frequently be more tax-efficient than giving cash.
According to The Giving Block, the trend of crypto donations has matured to a point where it can withstand market volatility. The firm believed that crypto charity is ready for further growth when the bull market picks up. This is because of the steadiness in donations throughout a bear market. The Crypto Philanthropy Adoption Index (CPAI) trend strongly suggests that we can expect cryptocurrencies to have an increased market share as a contribution method. Moreover, the user base for cryptocurrencies continues to expand.
The report also found that crypto adoption has increased among the top charitable organizations. As more people have begun using crypto assets, more organizations have opened their doors to the emerging asset class.
The number of charities that accepted cryptocurrency donations increased from 12 in 2019 to 49 in 2022, according to the firmsresearch of Forbes list of Americas TopCharities of 2022.
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Cryptocurrency Donations Increased by 41% During Bear Market - Watcher Guru