SlowMist, a leading blockchain security firm, released its 2024 Q2 MistTrack Stolen Funds Analysis report, looking closely at cryptocurrency thefts in the second quarter of 2024.

Based on 467 reports of stolen funds, the firm revealed three key weaknesses led to cryptocurrency theft and explained the methods that users can utilize to protect their funds.

Private Key Leaks Top the List

According to SlowMist, the second quarter of 2024 saw a troubling increase in security incidents. During this time, users reported 467 cases of stolen funds, including 321 from Chinese sources and 146 from other countries.

The platform’s team helped 18 victims lock nearly $20.66 million worth of funds across 13 companies. Additionally, the firm discussed the main causes of these incidents.

The most common cause of crypto theft is the mishandling of private keys. Despite warnings, many people store their private keys in Google Drive and other cloud services. Some even send this data to friends through social networks and messengers. Hackers use credential stuffing attacks to log into these cloud services and steal private keys.

Read more: 15 Most Common Crypto Scams To Look Out For

Another common cause of private key leaks is fake wallets. These apps often replicate legitimate software exactly, tricking users into entering private keys and directly transmitting them to attackers.

“Despite being an old issue, many users still inadvertently click on ads while using search engines and download fake wallet apps. Many users choose to download applications from third-party sites due to network reasons. Although these sites claim that their apps are mirrored from Google Play, their actual security is questionable,” read the report.

Phishing also remains a major cause of theft in the crypto industry. According to SlowMist, about 80% of the first comments under tweets from prominent project accounts are occupied by scam accounts.

Read more: Crypto Social Media Scams: How to Stay Safe

Fake X (formerly Twitter) accounts that spam under posts are sold in various Telegram feeds. Attackers can select profiles based on the number of followers and registration date. Most of the pages being sold are related to the crypto industry and crypto influencers. Experts also noted that some websites sell fake X accounts.

“For example, a fake account named ‘Optimlzm’ can look almost identical to the real account ‘Optimism’. After purchasing the highly similar account, phishing groups use promotion tools to boost the account’s interactions and follower count, thereby increasing its credibility,” SlowMist experts noted.

Honeypot Promises Mislead Crypto Users

The third threat identified by SlowMist is the honeypot scam. In this scheme, fraudsters create tokens that seem promising and offer high returns, but these tokens are programmed to be unsellable. This type of scam is particularly rampant on decentralized exchanges like PancakeSwap.

 “I asked a question in a Telegram group, and someone enthusiastically answered and taught me a lot. They suggested I invest in a new token in the primary market and provided me with a contract address on PancakeSwap. After I bought it, the token’s value kept rising. They told me it was a once-in-six-months golden opportunity and urged me to invest more. When I asked others in the group to help investigate, I discovered it was indeed a honeypot token. I could buy but not sell it,” one victim shared with SlowMist.

Read more: Top 9 Safest Crypto Exchanges in 2024

To reduce these risks, SlowMist stresses the need for strong security practices. They recommend using blockchain explorers like Etherscan or BscScan, which offer insights through audit trails and user comments, and browser extensions like Scam Sniffer, which can detect and alert users about potential phishing sites.

The findings of this report highlight the ongoing vulnerabilities and underline the need for proactive security measures by all participants of the ecosystem.

Hashrate is an important aspect of crypto projects that use the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism. While Bitcoin (BTC) heads this regime, the hashrate of its 2017 hard fork, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), surged dramatically on July 3.

Questions arose about the cause of the spike. However, BeInCrypto could lay hands on the rationale as the price moved in the opposite direction.

New Miner Scoops Bitcoin Cash New Supply

According to CoinWarz, the hashrate jumped to 8.54 ExaHash per second (EH/s).  The last time the reading was close to this region was November 2018, when it reached 7.79 EH/s. Therefore, the new value means it has hit a new All-Time High (ATH).

Hashrate represents the computational power miners use to generate new hashes while trying to solve new blocks on the Bitcoin Cash network. The higher the hashrate, the more secure the network and the more averse the blockchain is to attacks.

Therefore, the recent spike implies that Bitcoin Cash has become healthier.  According to The Bitcoin Cash Podcast, a certain miner called “Pheonix” was responsible for the hike in hashrate. 

The podcast mentioned via X, that this miner has been accumulating all the BCH fresh supply and, in turn, adding to the hashrate. Throwing  more light on the situation, the handle noted that: 

“A miner receiving a large chunk of coins (or knowing of others who were) could be bullish on swaps to BCH (150+:1 BCH: BTC is bullish for OGs reallocating to BCH) and want to grab an extra supply.” 

Read More: 7 Best Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Wallets in 2024

Despite the rise, BCH’s price went the other way. As of this writing, BCH trades at $357.74. This is a 5.23% decrease in the last 24 hours and the lowest the coin has reached since March 14.

BCH Price Prediction: It All Depends on Bitcoin

BCH’s price decline can be attributed to Bitcoin’s plunge within the same period. This is because of the correlation between both cryptocurrencies.

According to IntoTheBlock, the correlation matrix between BTC and BCH is 0.90. Typically, the correlation matrix ranges from -1 to +1. Values closer to -1 indicate a strong divergence in prices.

However, when the correlation is close to +1, it means that the cryptos move in the same direction in many instances. This is the case with Bitcoin and its hard fork.

On June 10, the daily chart shows that BCH retested the 476.35 resistance. However, it was at this point that a bearish crossover happened. A bearish crossover, also known as a death cross, occurs when the longer EMA rises above the shorter EMA.

EMA stands for Exponential Moving Average, and it measures trend direction over a period of time. This was the case with BCH on the said date, as the 50 EMA (yellow) crossed above the 20 EMA (blue). 

Consequently, Bitcoin Cash bulls could not defend the support at $423.30. In addition, the price trades below both EMAs, indicating a further decline could be in the works.

Read More: Bitcoin Vs Bitcoin Cash: Which Is a Better Investment in 2024?

If this happens, the price of BCH could drop to $317.19, especially as most miners remain unprofitable. However, this will be invalidated if Bitcoin’s price recovers or rises above $60,000 for a start. Should this be the case, BCH may rise toward $415.19.

As Bitcoin hits a two-month low of $57,500, numerous crypto investors are strategically exiting volatile meme coins. The broader market downturn has notably affected these digital assets, known for their speculative nature, leading to significant sell-offs.

This week, some of the investors have started booking profits. Yet, they still hold a significant amount of meme coins, awaiting market recovery.

Crypto Investors Sold Pepe, Dogwifhat, and MICHI

“Dimethyltryptamine.eth,” who owns the wallet address 0x4a2, returned after 10 months of dormancy. According to Spot On Chain, this crypto whale exchanged 10 billion Pepe (PEPE) for $112,000, converting them into 32.73 Ethereum (ETH) at a rate of $0.0000112118.

Despite the market’s volatility, this investor still possesses 1.99 trillion PEPE, currently valued at $22.35 million, which represents a staggering 59,600% increase in value.

Read more: 7 Hot Meme Coins and Altcoins that are Trending in 2024

Moreover, this investor holds substantial amounts of other meme coins. Their portfolio includes 711.7 million Wojak (WOJAK) and 147.5 billion Mog Coin (MOG), with unrealized profits of $457,000 and $824,000 respectively. These figures highlight the considerable gains still possible in the fluctuating meme coin market.

In another significant movement, BxPMj transferred 900,000 Dogwifhat (WIF) tokens, valued at $1.64 million, to the centralized exchange Bybit. Despite the market’s downturn, BxPMj’s remaining holdings in WIF are estimated at $1.76 million.

Additionally, the owner of a Solana (SOL) wallet, J2GcK, sold 8.6 million michi (MICHI) for $1.34 million, realizing a profit of $1.24 million. Initially, J2GcK had invested 578 SOL, worth $103,000, to purchase these tokens between April 8 and April 15. At their peak, the MICHI tokens were valued at over $5 million, demonstrating the high volatility and potential profits in meme coin investments.

Previously, in an interview with BeInCrypto, Tristan Dickinson, the CMO of EOS Network, discussed the behavior of crypto whales.

“Whales follow market trends and capitalize where they see an opportunity. As easily as they can liquidate, putting downward pressure on the market, they can hodl if they see an opportunity,” Dickinson told BeInCrypto

Currently, the meme coin sector has declined by approximately 13% in the last 24 hours. WIF, among the top 10 meme coins, experienced the most significant drop, declining by 13.2%.

Read more: 11 Top Solana Meme Coins to Watch in July 2024

Conversely, meme coins such as Dogecoin (DOGE) and DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON have faced less severe impacts, with reductions of 8.6% and 7.6% respectively.