With the surging adoption and popularity of cryptocurrencies, the pace of hacks, thefts, and heists has also surged in the past few years. From January 1, 2024, until publishing, the entire market has lost over $1 billion in digital currencies in hacks, scams, and frauds. 

In a recent announcement, Banana Gun, a cryptocurrency trading bot based on telegram, announced that it is refunding $3 million lost in a hack operated by more than ten bad actors. 

Earlier on September 19, 2024, some users of Banana Gun identified unauthorized funds transfers from their wallets following the reports from users that the trading bot temporarily halted its Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), including Solana bots, to avoid other losses. 

The victims witnessed the attacker manually transferring ETH from their wallets while they were interacting with the bot and receiving notifications, an X post dated September 15, 2024 notes. 

Banana Gun notes, “A total of 11 users were affected, with $3M drained. All impacted users will be fully refunded from the Banana Gun treasury, with no tokens being sold for reimbursements.”

EVM AND SOLANA BOT ONLINEBoth our EVM and Solana bots are back online, with an additional safety measure of a 6-hour transfer delay now in place. We will also be monitoring activity 24/7.Thank you all for your patience and trust. The team will refund all victims of the…

— Banana Gun (@BananaGunBot) September 20, 2024

In an X post dated September 21, 2024 “Both our EVM and Solana bots are back online, with an additional safety measure of a 6-hour transfer delay now in place. We will also be monitoring activity 24/7.”

Other Market News Updates

In the past 78 hours, the cryptocurrency market capitalization has shown a strong reversal, and market capitalization has grown by over 7% in a week. When writing, it was $2.23 trillion with an intraday surge of 0.50%. 

Ethereum lost 1.25% of its trading price in the past 24 hours until publishing that it was trading at $2,654; market watchers claim that the price decline seems to be filed by the decision of the SEC to postpone its decision over-application by BlackRock seeking approval to list and trade options contracts on iShare Ethereum Trust (ETHA). 

Binance, a leading centralized exchange, has helped the Enforcement Directorate of India to crack down on an online betting game worth over $45 million. Additional information notes that the information provided by the exchange helps the agency to track down the wallets and others linked with the fraudulent scheme. 

Most recently, in a discussion with CNBC, Larry Fink, the head of BlackRock, expressed his optimism for Bitcoin, terming it a legitimate investment; he also argued that it has a high potential and could reach $100,000 in the coming future. 

He asserted that Bitcoin has helped the nation with a weak economy and has the potential to help recover the country from the devaluation of the national currency.