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Railgun Among Crypto Market Top Gainers: Why Is RAIL 53% Up?

Recently, the crypto market fluctuations have seen most cryptocurrencies exhibit red numbers. While many remain unfazed by the market dynamics, some sectors of the crypto community have turned more pessimistic, and their bags are seemingly going down instead of up.

Despite this, some projects have shown a remarkable performance this week. Among the top gainers today, privacy protocol Railgun has skyrocketed 53% in the last 24 hours after a week of support from crucial figures in the crypto industry.

Vitalik Buterin Shows Support To Privacy Tools

On Monday, news broke that Ethereum’s founder Vitalik Buterin had transferred 100 ETH, worth around $325,000, to Railgun. The project is an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) privacy protocol that allows DeFi private transactions.

Although the move raised criticism, most replies supported his use of privacy tools. Some users pointed out that Buterin’s every on-chain move is watched and speculated on.

Ethereum’s founder later addressed the news, expressing support for the project’s use of the Privacy Pools protocol, which “makes it much harder for bad actors to join the pool without compromising users’ privacy.”

Buterin also stated in his post that “privacy is normal,” an idea he has expressed several times before. He has researched the use of Privacy Pools to achieve an equilibrium between blockchain privacy and regulatory compliance.

After the post, Railgun (RAIL) skyrocketed 257%. The token went from trading at $0.56 to changing hands for $1.97 in a few hours. Moreover, the rest of the privacy tokens market saw a pump, with tokens like Monero (XRM) and Oasis Network (ROSE) rising 7% and 12.3%, respectively. As of this writing, privacy tokens are 4.7% up, per CoinGecko data.

Railgun Defends From Crypto Laundering Allegations

On Tuesday, the crypto news platform Wu Blockchain highlighted the alleged links between the privacy protocol and the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group. The post affirmed that Lazarus Group “is also a user of the coin mixer Railgun.”

Moreover, the news platform pointed out that, in January 2023, the US FBI claimed over $60 million worth of stolen ETH was laundered through Railgun. Additionally, the post stated that the privacy protocol became the “main alternative” after the Tornado Cash sanctions.

Railgun shut down Wu Blockchain’s claims, deeming them “not true and false reporting.” The post stated the news was “a mistaken, false allegation in the first place.”

However, they clarified that the Lazarus Group is blocked from using the protocol’s system due to the “Private Proofs of Innocence” (Private POI).

The Private POI tool was implemented a year ago and gives “cryptographic assurance that funds entering the RAILGUN smart contract are not from a known list of transactions or actors considered undesirable by respective wallet providers.”

Despite the controversy, the price of RAIL remained above the $1 support level, hovering between $1.00 and $1.30 in the following days. RAIL continued an upward trajectory after its listing on the crypto exchange Poloniex.

At writing time, RAIL is trading at $1.85, an 18.2% surge in the last hour. According to an X user, a whale recently bought 152,034 RAIL tokens, which could have fueled the price jump.

Moreover, following its remarkable week, RAIL has increased 156% in the last seven days, with its daily trading volume rising a stellar 376% from yesterday.

crypto, Railgun, RAIL, RAILUSDT

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A Long Con: CoinsPaid Says Systems Were Under Attack For Six Months

In a new report, Estonia’s preeminent crypto payment and personal wallet provider, CoinsPaid, has revealed the intricate workings of a hacking incident that led to a colossal loss of $37 million.

This audacious breach was reportedly the culmination of a six-month saga marked by calculated maneuvers and sophisticated tactics, orchestrated by none other than the notorious Lazarus Group. 

Collaborating with Match Systems, CoinsPaid embarked on a comprehensive inquiry, unearthing the modus operandi of the hacking group and exposing the subsequent laundering of pilfered assets in a post.

Elaborate 6-Month Operation By Lazarus Group

The ploy, characterized by an extraordinary level of meticulousness, spanned half a year, revealing the calculated and relentless nature of the hack. Employing a blend of social engineering and technical strategies, the hackers engaged in a series of Distributed Denial-of-Service and brute-force attacks. 

Their calculated approach culminated in a July 22 breach with the manipulation of a CoinsPaid employee, ensnaring them through a falsified job proposition. The ordeal began innocently enough, as a CoinsPaid employee embarked on a video interview for what appeared to be an enticing career prospect, facilitated via LinkedIn. 

Little did they know that the seemingly innocuous task of downloading a technical assessment was part of an elaborate ruse orchestrated by the hackers. This single act granted the hackers access to CoinsPaid’s systems, allowing them to exploit software vulnerabilities and authorize unauthorized withdrawals from the company’s hot wallets.

The hacker executed a swift sequence of unauthorized withdrawals, swiftly depleting the company’s coffers in less than an hour of operation. In total, CoinsPaid lost $37.3 million in the attack.

Crypto total market cap chart from Tradingview.com (CoinsPaid)

CoinsPaid Moving Forward From The Incident

CoinsPaid’s exhaustive post-mortem report reveals invaluable lessons extracted from the breach. The report highlights the importance of training employees to identify social engineering tactics, including job offers that might be a ploy to gain access to internal systems. 

The report also explains the adoption of principles like the Separation of Duties and Least Privilege, advocating for the implementation of robust monitoring and alert systems to detect suspicious activities. 

Following the report, CoinsPaid will be hosting a roundtable discussion involving blockchain-based entities, aiming to collectively address the escalating threat posed by hacking incidents.

In the wake of the exploit, the payments platform assured customers that none of their funds were affected. The company also resumed all activities less than a week after the hack took place.

The Lazarus Group is believed to have stolen over $3.8 billion in digital assets from crypto exchanges and decentralized finance (DeFi) services since it became active.