Ripple, the cryptocurrency payment network, has acquired Standard Custody & Trust Company, a US-based digital asset custody provider, marking its second such acquisition. This follows its purchase of Swiss custody provider Metaco last year. Standard Custody, with its New York BitLicense, offers custody and escrow services under a charter granted by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Ripple sees this acquisition as a strategic move to expand its regulatory licenses and offer a more comprehensive suite of services to its customers.
The acquisition of Standard Custody & Trust Company adds to Ripple's growing portfolio of regulatory licenses, which includes a New York BitLicense and nearly 40 money transmitter licenses across various American states. Ripple aims to become a one-stop shop for enterprises seeking services related to tokenization, storage, movement, and exchange of value. This acquisition also aligns with Ripple's goal of providing more diverse and robust solutions to its clients in the cryptocurrency and digital asset space.
Standard Custody & Trust Company is a subsidiary of PolySign, a digital asset infrastructure firm founded by Arthur Britto, a co-founder of Ripple. Britto, who maintains a low public profile, was instrumental in designing the XRP Ledger protocol. Ripple's acquisition of Standard Custody & Trust is subject to regulatory approval, highlighting the importance of compliance and regulatory adherence in the cryptocurrency industry.
The blockchain community is abuzz with mixed reactions to the emergence of ERC-404, a new Ethereum token standard blending features of ERC-20 and ERC-721. This innovative standard, introduced by pseudonymous developers under the project Pandora, allows for the fractionalization of NFT ownership. Despite its recent success, with Pandora ERC-404 tokens showing a remarkable 530% return since issuance, the standard faces skepticism from some industry experts.
Critics point out that ERC-404 deviates from standard ERC procedures, raising questions about its status as a true ERC token. Miguel Prada, from Diva Staking, highlights the uncertainty surrounding ERC-404's future adoption, noting its potential limitation due to independent integration. While acknowledging its liquidity benefits for illiquid NFT markets, Prada warns about the challenges of exchanging fractions of tokens representing different asset classes, particularly for NFTs tied to real-world assets.
Ryan Lee, of Bitget Research, echoes similar sentiments, expressing caution despite the initial price surges of ERC-404 tokens. Lee emphasizes the experimental nature of ERC-404 and its absence from the Ethereum Foundation's ERC standard, suggesting that its long-term viability remains unproven. However, Akash Mahendra from Haven1 views ERC-404 as a potential game changer, praising its ability to combine the functionalities of ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens. Mahendra sees ERC-404 as a gateway to tokenizing real-world assets and creating decentralized finance equivalents of exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The Angel Drainer phishing group has executed a sophisticated attack, stealing over $400,000 from 128 crypto wallets by deploying a malicious Safe vault contract. This attack exploited Etherscan's verification tool, which erroneously confirmed the contract as legitimate, lulling victims into a false sense of security. Despite this, the attack was not a direct hit on Safe, but rather a clever use of the platform due to Etherscan's automatic verification flag.
Angel Drainer, operating for just 12 months, has already drained over $25 million from nearly 35,000 wallets. This nefarious group is known for its innovative attack methods, such as the $484,000 Ledger Connect Kit hack and the Eigenlayer retake farming attack. In the retake farming attack, the group exploited a new approval method, withdrawing staking rewards to the attacker's address once signed by users. Despite efforts to mitigate such attacks, phishing remains a significant threat to the crypto community, with approximately 40,000 users falling victim to phishing attacks in January alone, resulting in a combined loss of $55 million.
