Here are the three biggest stories in crypto to look out for this coming week

After last week’s annual Devcon in Colombia, it’s well and truly crypto conference season. Next week is no different, with the Digital Asset Summit taking place in London on Monday and Tuesday. 

At the same time, the crypto industry will be carefully watching the fallout from the latest chapter in the Mango Markets drama. Plus, we’ll keep an eye out for hacks, with October already being the worst month in a big year of crypto exploits. 

Watch for news from the Digital Asset Summit

The coming week will see institutional players in finance and digital assets converge in London for the Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit. The conference is scheduled for Oct. 17-18 and will take place at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in the UK’s capital city. 

This event will feature panels and talks from the likes of Aave founder Stani Kulechov, Kaiko CEO Ambre Soubiran and Coinshares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti. Representatives from traditional finance firms including HSBC, BNP Paribas, Morgan Stanley and the London Stock Exchange Group will also speak. 

More Mango Markets drama?

Yesterday, Avraham Eisenberg, the man behind the $114 million exploit on Mango Markets, confirmed his part in orchestrating the attack. It left the protocol insolvent with users’ positions in danger of being liquidated. Following a Mango community vote, Eisenberg will be allowed to keep $47 million of the $114 million that he procured. This is a substantially larger amount than the usual bounties claimed by hackers in exchange for the exploited platforms not pursuing criminal charges. 

While Eisenberg views his actions as «legal», calling the exploit «a highly profitable trading strategy» rather than a hack, it remains to be seen whether law enforcement officials will view his deal with the protocol as legally binding. 

Hacktober continues 

The Mango Markets hack tops what has so far been a huge month for hacks in the cryptocurrency space, and we are only two weeks in. An Oct. 12 report by The Block cited Chainalysis data that showed October is already in the lead for the most crypto funds stolen in a month. The data cited 11 hacks totaling $718 million, so far topping a year that is expected to eclipse the $3 billion stolen in 2021.  

Along with the Mango Markets exploit, others include the recent $100 million hack of Binance’s BNB cross-chain bridge. Are there more to come?

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