The Block

Matter Labs trimmed its workforce by 16% as demand for ZKsync Era continues to fall.The SEC charged and settled with the crypto-focused investment advisory firm Galois Capital over custody issues.The entity behind the WazirX hack moved $6.5 million in ether to the sanctioned crypto mixer Tornado Cash.The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Quick Take The charges involved a private fund that mostly invested in crypto, the SEC said in a statement on Tuesday. The SEC and Galois Capital agreed to a settlement, according to the agency. Galois Capital did not admit or deny the agency’s findings.

Quick Take In Scotland, a man convicted for being the “technical brains” behind a 2020 assault and robbery of cryptocurrency had £110,000 (about $144,000) worth of bitcoin seized.

Quick Take North Korean hackers are using “complex and elaborate” social engineering strategies on web3 employees to steal company crypto. Such tactics can be hard to spot and dupe even individuals with high technical knowledge. To avoid such threats, the FBI recommends firms eschew storing crypto wallet information on internet-connected devices and create safe systems to verify company individuals.

Quick Take CEO Alex Gluchowski said the market environment and business needs have changed significantly over the course of this year. ZkSync has about 92,620 active addresses as of Monday, down from a peak north of 455,000 in April.

Quick Take October has typically been a strong month for bitcoin — averaging nearly 30% gains during the month in eight of the last nine years — according to QCP Capital analysts. In light of this, the analysts suggest that the historical trend offers a strategic opportunity for near-term accumulation with the potential for profit-taking in October.

Bitcoin miner Bitfarms reported mining 233 BTC in August and increased its holdings to 1,103 BTC.Meanwhile, rival Riot penned an open letter to Bitfarms’ shareholders as its attempted takeover of the firm heads toward a crucial special meeting.

Quick Take Hypernative has raised $16 million in Series A funding from Quantstamp, CMT Digital and others. The round was structured as equity and brought Hypernative’s total funding to $27 million, co-founder and CEO Gal Sagie told The Block.

Quick Take FLock awarded grant to fund research into incentive mechanisms for blockchain-based machine learning solutions

Quick Take NEBRA is launching its universal proof aggregator tool on digital identity giant World Chain. The integration will slash costs for running computationally heavy proofs on World Chain, which uses ZK tech for its identity solution.