The Nuls blockchain suffered a $480,000 hack, the project announced on Dec. 22. According to the Nuls team, 2 million NULS were transferred, in which 548,354 coins have already entered the market and could not be traced, which is worth approximately $131,600. As a result of the hack, NULS has decided to to perform a hard fork at block number 87,800. According to a security update by Nuls,
Source: Twitter“After the hard fork, the remaining 1451645.65303905 NULS that has not entered the trading market will be destroyed in a permanent freeze to prevent continued flow into the market.”
By initiating the hard fork, Nuls expects that it will prevent further losses to the NULS community. The update is being classified as mandatory, and node operators must upgrade “to the latest version ASAP to avoid receiving unnecessary yellow cards,” the announcement states. The hackers were able to attack as a result of a security flaw in Nuls version 2.2, a vulnerability which the team says has since been fixed. Cryptocurrency exchanges are cooperating with Nuls in the wake of the hack.
Despite the hack, NULS coin has held up remarkably well, suffering only modest declines while the broader crypto market trades in the green. The stolen coins reportedly represent 2% of the coin’s total circulating supply of 73 million.
The Nuls hack comes at a time when the cryptocurrency market is in the cross hairs of global regulators. U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard recently warned about the risks associated with cryptocurrencies, suggesting that bitcoin is increasingly being used for nefarious purposes, reportedly stating:
“One study estimated that more than a quarter of bitcoin users and roughly half of bitcoin transactions, for example, are associated with illegal activity.”
Brainard went on to bemoan what she believes are lax know-your-customer (KYC) procedures in place at cryptocurrency exchanges:
“Only a third of the most popular exchanges require ID verification and proof of address to make a deposit or withdrawal. This is troubling, since a number of studies conclude that cryptocurrencies support a significant amount of illicit activity.”
Proof of Stake
Nuls is a proof-of-stake cryptocurrency that launched its mainnet in July 2018 and transitioned away from ERC-20 tokens. Users boast the ease in which coins can be staked. To participate, investors must hold a minimum of 2,000 NULS tokens, download the latest wallet version, and join a node. Nuls is available to trade on major exchanges, including Binance, OKEx, KuCoin, and Bit-Z. While the coin only suffered minor declines after the hack, it’s shed roughly 40% of its value year-to-date, as many altcoins have similarly fallen.
Nuls was also included among the top-10 blockchain projects by the Center for Information and Industry Development (CCID) Research’s Total Index. According to these rankings, which are based on “applicability, creativity, innovation, and underlying technology,” many China-domiciled projects led the league tables: EOS came in first, Tron in second, Nuls fourth, Lisk fifth, NEO sixth, and Bitshares eighth.
Source: Twitter
And according to Twitter account Nalex,
Source: Twitter“NULS [is] holding that 4th spot for the last 3 consecutive CCID rankings. Not bad considering $NULS M. Cap is only 2% of the lowest M. Cap in the top 3.”
The NULS price is most recently trading fractionally lower at $0.23.