Former stockbroker, commonly known as the “Wolf of Wall Street,” Jordan Belfort, has admitted falling victim to a crypto hacking incident while stressing on the importance of regulating the sector.
According to Belfort, he once lost about $300,000 worth of digital currencies stored in the Metamask wallet after a hack,” he said during an interview with Yahoo Finance on November 21.
However, Belfort noted that since the incident, he stores his assets in a cold storage instead of the exchange’s hot crypto wallets.
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“I don’t have any of my money in any crypto on exchanges. It’s all off in a cold storage wallet, so to speak, with Ledger. So I got hacked, actually. I lost about $300,000 on MetaMask last year. This is a very, very, very tough industry right now because it’s really literally like the Wild West,” Belfort said.
Shunning exchange wallets
It is worth noting that the focus on storing crypto on exchanges emerged after customers lost funds in the FTX collapse. In this case, investors have focused more on storing their assets in self-custody wallets.
Interestingly, on-chain data highlighted an exodus of cryptocurrencies from exchanges with storage platforms like Trust Wallet emerging as key beneficiaries. Consequently, the interest saw the Trust Wallet Token (TWT) rallying to new highs.
Notably, the cryptocurrency sector has sustained a bear market in 2022, characterized by a series of scandals, with the FTX cryptocurrency exchange collapse being the latest high-profile incident.
Belfort on the need for regulations
In this case, Belfort noted that to minimize such incidents, there is a need for more regulations. Interestingly, Belfort has stated that Bitcoin (BTC) would likely thrive in a regulated environment.
“It’s in desperate need of regulation, desperate need of the SEC or somebody to step in here and bring at least some level of order to the chaos. Even after they do that, there will still be fraud. There always is in every market,” he said.
As earlier reported by Finbold, Belfort had alleged that the FTX collapse was engineered by the founder Sam Bankman-Fried. He termed the exchange’s operations as a ‘frat house’ while alleging that Bankman-Fried premeditated the collapse that has weighed down on the general market.
It is worth noting that with the extended crypto market volatility, Belfort highlighted some of the strategies investors can leverage to survive the conditions. According to the former stockbroker, investors need a time frame for investing in Bitcoin, not panicking and selling alongside focusing on Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) only.
Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.
