Greetings, everyone, and a warm welcome to the final edition of this week's Datawallet Daily, your reliable beacon in the ever-evolving landscape of digital assets. In today's drop, we'll be delving into the crucial industry news that's currently stirring up the scene:

• MakerDAO surges 28% this week
• Conic Finance, the DeFi protocol, hacked
• McDonald's introduces McNuget Land in the metaverse
• US DOJ to double its crypto team 
• Digital Yuan integrated into business travel

MakerDAO surges 28% this week due to Smart Burn Engine

MKR, MakerDAO's token, has seen a 28% surge this week, driven by the launch of its Smart Burn Engine. This innovative system uses surplus DAI to buy MKR tokens from the Univ2 DAI/MKR market. These tokens are then paired with additional DAI and returned to the market, resulting in Maker receiving LP tokens and boosting MKR's on-chain liquidity.

The Smart Burn Engine activates when the Surplus Buffer exceeds 50M DAI. Its steps include buying MKR with DAI, pairing the acquired MKR with more DAI, returning the pair to the market, and transferring the LP token to a protocol-owned address.

The Smart Burn Engine's unique approach to token buyback and burn has resonated with investors, driving MKR's price surge. With this system, MakerDAO continues to innovate, enhancing MKR's value and making it this week's top-performing asset.

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Conic Finance hacked for 1700 ETH

Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Conic Finance announced on Friday that it had experienced an exploit resulting in the theft of more than 1,700 ether (ETH), valued at over $3.6 million based on current prices. This exploit specifically targeted one of its Omnipools.

According to security firm BlockSec, the attack was caused by price manipulation through "read-only reentrancy." Reentrancy is a common vulnerability that allows attackers to deceive a smart contract by repeatedly calling a protocol, ultimately enabling them to steal assets. In this context, a call refers to the authorization for the smart contract address to interact with a user's wallet address.

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McDonald's introduces McNuget Land in the metaverse 

McDonald's is marking the 40th anniversary of Chicken McNuggets by launching a virtual world called McNuggets Land on The Sandbox platform. This isn't the first time the fast food chain has shown interest in virtual realms. In 2022, they filed a patent application for an online virtual restaurant with home delivery. However, with the decline in consumer and investor interest in Web3, it's worth asking why they're doing this now and what role Grimace plays in it.

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US DOJ to double its crypto team 

The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) has confirmed that it will increase the size of its crypto crime team, which was established in 2021. This expansion will involve hiring more acting prosecutors and appointing a new leader.

On July 20, the DoJ released a statement by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri, who spoke at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In her speech, Argentieri announced the merging of two DoJ teams: the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) and the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET).

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Digital Yuan integrated into business travel

According to a local media report, Chinese business travelers will soon have the option to use China's digital yuan to pay for their flight tickets. The China Merchants Bank and the Civil Aviation Administration of China have collaborated to create a digital yuan platform, which will make transactions easier for travelers within the aviation network.

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Other breaking news

• UBI project Worldcoin has completed migration to the OP mainnet
• MakerDAO community proposes to introduce the Enhanced DAI Savings Rate
• BlackRock BTC ETF a big rubber stamp for BTC
• DOJ levies another accusation against Sam Bankman Fried
• Side Protocol raises $1.5 million

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Wrapping up

That’s it for this week's last edition of the Datawallet newsletter. Today’s updates included China introducing its CBDC into business travel in China, while the US DOJ looks double its crypto team to ensure more regulatory scrutiny. Another DeFi protocol got hacked, and to everyone’s surprise, McDonald’s launched a project in the metaverse. Stay tuned for more updates in our rapidly evolving space.