• Crypto exchange Binance US displays the strong depeg of stablecoins.
• Over the past week, the crypto market lost $128 million in hacks and exploits.

Hacks and phishing attacks of different kinds invaded the crypto landscape in the first week of July. As a result, two major stablecoins breached their stable grounds, recording extreme lows on Binance US.

On July 9, around 00:00 UTC, the largest stablecoin, Tether (USDT), depegged from its $1 parity and bottomed to an alarming low of $0.8800. Meanwhile, Circle’s USD Coin (USDC), its stablecoin rival, plunged to $0.8050 on the same day.

Multichain Hack: Root Cause of the Depeg

July 7 turned out to be the hack day in the crypto market. Contrary attacks commenced on the day — few without any loss of funds such as Aptos and the other with a notable $126 million loot. This USDT and USDC depeg on Binance is an aftermath of the Multichain hack.

Multichain, formerly Anyswap, is a cross-chain protocol that enables crypto transfers via bridges over multiple blockchain networks. During this hack, the protocol’s Fantom Bridge was exploited. Various assets include Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), wrapped Ethereum (wETH), Dai (DAI), Tether (USDT), and USD Coin (USDC).

Circle and Tether Freeze Millions of USDC, USDT

Currently, Multichain has suspended all its services without any specific “return date.”The leading stablecoin issuers, Circle and Tether, froze 5 addresses associated with the Multichain hack. Three accounts held 63 million USDC and two accounts held 2.5 million USDT, as reported by blockchain security firm PeckShield.

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