Wall Street’s Crypto Ambitions Dealt a Setback by Latest Hack
A Wall Street sign on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Photographer: Michael Nagle/BloombergThe weekend hack that drained nearly $300 million from a small crypto project and triggered a $10 billion run on the largest decentralized lending platform could slow Wall Street’s growing interest in blockchain technology, according to Jefferies LLC.
Banks, asset managers and payments companies have spent the past year building products on technology systems similar to the ones that were reportedly exploited by North Korean hackers in the attack, Andrew Moss, from the digital assets research team at Jefferies, wrote in a report Tuesday. While the firm said the damage is unlikely to spill into more conventional markets, it warned that traditional finance companies are likely to pause and reassess the risks before pushing further into the space.