What Does The Solana Hacking Mean For Crypto?
Whether you are a crypto investor with significant Bitcoin holdings, or the owner of a small amount of cryptocurrency which you use for playing at crypto casinos such as bitcasino.io, you may be watching the news headlines anxiously as the latest crypto winter rolls on.
It’s no secret that the world of digital currency has received more than its fair share of bad news over the past few months. The chill first began to set in as rising inflation and interest rates prompted digital currencies to drop in value rapidly during the first months of 2022. The outbreak of war in Ukraine caused a further spiral, due to the damaging ripple effect it triggered across the global economy. The crypto world has also been plagued by scandal, such as the claims of fraud and embezzlement surrounding the creators of the Luna and TeraUSD stablecoins.
Solana falls prey to hackers
More recently, cryptocurrency once again made headlines with the news that the Solana blockchain network had been hacked and approximately £5 million stolen from 8000 digital wallets. Among the digital coins stolen were the network’s own sol tokens and USD Coins.
As a result of the hacking, the sol token dropped in value by approximately 8% in the first hours after the attack, although it has since regained its footing and is only down by around 1%.
According to Tom Robinson, chief scientist of Elliptic, an analytics firm that is investigating the hacking, the exact means by which the attack took place has still not been discovered. However, Robinson revealed that “it appears to be due to a flaw in certain wallet software, rather than in the Solana blockchain itself.”
Solana attempted to reassure people via its Twitter page, explaining that “Engineers from multiple ecosystems, with the help of several security firms, are investigating drained wallets on Solana”.
The network blamed the attack on “a malicious actor”, whose identity remains unknown.
The future of crypto currency?
Cryptocurrency has experienced various trials since Bitcoin was first created and launched in 2008, by a shadowy entity known as Satoshi Nakamoto. Tens and then hundreds of other cryptocurrencies followed in its footsteps, and Bitcoin amassed such a huge following that it was championed by the likes of Tesla and has even become legal tender in El Salvador.
Nevertheless, these digital currencies have undergone sharp peaks and troughs over the years. Fundamentally volatile, cryptocurrencies can be affected by both internal and external factors, seemingly slumping into a crypto winter almost overnight.
While some analysts and investors refuse to believe that recent events – including the Solan hacking – can bring crypto to its knees, the most recent crypto winter has been the harshest so far. It remains to be seen if digital currencies can redeem themselves and regain the confidence of investors.
If you have been considering investing in a digital currency yourself, you may be wondering whether it’s still a good idea. At the very least, it seems wise to enter the crypto market with caution for the time being, with the consensus among advisors being to make digital currencies such as Bitcoin only a very small percentage of your investment portfolio.
