Decrypt’s Art, Fashion, and Entertainment Hub. Discover SCENEU.S. law enforcement authorities seized two domains connected with an AI-powered social media bot farm linked to the government of Russia, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Tuesday.“This is a strong example of the disruption-first strategy that the Department, including the FBI, have taken when it comes to cyber and cyber-enabled threats to national security,” a DOJ spokesperson told Decrypt. “We continue to evolve in the way we defend and identify these actors.”According to documents released by the agency, the cybercriminals used generative AI to create fake social media profiles, many claiming to be Americans, that were then used to post pro-Russian messages on Twitter.“Today’s actions represent a first in disrupting a Russian-sponsored generative AI-enhanced social media bot farm,” U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray said in a statement

We do the research, you get the alpha!Get exclusive reports and access to key insights on airdrops, NFTs, and more! Subscribe now to Alpha Reports and up your game!Go to Alpha ReportsThe Arena, a blockchain-based social token platform, said on Wednesday that a cryptocurrency tied to its project will go live in less than two weeks.“It’s time to lock in,” the project announced in a post on Twitter, adding that its ARENA token is slated to launch “the week of June 10.”Built on Avalanche, Arena lets users trade “tickets” that are tied to individual Twitter accounts. Priced in Avalanche’s native AVAX token, the tickets grant holders benefits like access to private chat rooms or viewing certain posts.The project is comparable to friend.tech as an attempt to merge social media and decentralized finance in a seamless yet sticky way. Under the umbrella of SocialFi, both projects place value on users’ ability to exert influence or capture attention online.Much like the points-based rewards system popularized by the NFT marketplace Blur, Arena user stats are tracked to determine their eligibility for the eventual airdrop. That process considers aspects like referrals, trading, and general activity.Rewarding a crypto project’s early users and contributors with a portion of newly launched tokens, airdrops can also serve as a way to drum up interest in emerging protocols. As of this writing, the breadth or size of Arena’s airdrop was unclear.One differentiator between Arena and friend.tech is the introduction of a public feed, which allows Arena users to publish and view social posts without owning anything. On the public feed, users can also tip each other for posts in various cryptocurrencies—Avalanche-based assets, of course, but also some Solana meme coins.As of this writing, Arena’s total value locked (TVL) was over 32,000 AVAX, worth around $1.1 million

Decrypt’s Art, Fashion, and Entertainment Hub. Discover SCENEThe founder of the Ordinal Rugs project said hackers targeted members of the Bitcoin Rock Discord server on Tuesday, stealing $1.47 BTC, around $103,003, and 4 BTC, around $208,196, worth of Ordinal inscriptions from their wallet.Ordinals are the hot thing in digital collectibles; over 63 million inscriptions have been minted on the Bitcoin blockchain, with 6388 BTC in fees only to date, around $450 million, according to a Dune Analytics report. This makes Bitcoin a tempting target for hackers.“In the ten years I've spent in crypto, this is the first time I've lost a sizable amount of money through a hack/scam (let alone a wallet drainer),” the pseudonymous founder Archon disclosed in a tweet thread—admitting that he had been careless, despite implementing strong security controls.“I'm not one to take op-sec lightly,” they wrote. “I have all personal logins authenticated with Yubikeys, and the majority of my crypto assets/ordinals are secure on hardware + multi-sig wallets.”ADADWallet Drained, A Port-Mortem. Earlier today I fell victim to a wallet drainer on one of my personal hot wallets, losing 1.47 BTC plus around ~4 BTC worth of ordinals ($300k+ USD) In the ten years I've spent in crypto, this is the first time I've lost a sizable amount… pic.twitter.com/nhsBDmrWWV — Archon ⚡️ (@bitarchon) March 26, 2024Cyber attacks targeting crypto wallets are common, and celebrities and prominent community are frequent targets. In May 2022, actor Seth Green was the victim of a phishing attack that robbed him of a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT