In the early hours of June 30 at 12:18 AM, Rocelo Lopes, CEO of SmartPay and creator of the self-custody wallet Truther, detected atypical movements on the company’s platforms and immediately heightened validation filters for USDT and Bitcoin purchases. The swift action allowed for large sums of money to be withheld and initiated the immediate return of funds to the involved institutions.
“There were over 30 attempted transactions; we prefer not to disclose the amounts to protect the companies, but we are fully available to authorities and institutions to support operations involving crypto assets. In recent years, we’ve gained significant experience in monitoring suspicious crypto transactions through tools and processes we’ve developed, aligned with deep knowledge of the market and blockchain technology. I believe we can greatly assist in this incident,” states Rocelo Lopes.
For the CEO of SmartPay, the incident highlights that the financial system needs to evolve, moving from a vulnerable centralized structure to mechanisms capable of tracking transactions and blocking suspicious amounts in real time. “They focused on monitoring clients and institutions but forgot about what happens after the institutions. The private structure is okay, but what happens after that isn’t,” he evaluates.
Rocelo emphasizes that blockchain could have mitigated or even prevented part of the damage by allowing transactions to be tracked from their origin, using immutable ‘digital stamps’ that would facilitate the immediate blocking of suspicious funds via smart contracts. “If fraud is detected, the system automatically halts the transaction and requests clarification from the recipient. And we can embed encrypted data into the transaction, such as geolocation, IP, and user identification,” he explains.
Beyond traceability, blockchain offers privacy and security to the user by transferring custody of transaction keys to the client and decentralizing risks. “When centralized, the attack point is easier. When decentralized, even balances aren’t visible for attack. The user becomes responsible for their own key, as we already do with Truther,” he points out.
For Rocelo, public blockchains, not private ones, are the real path to modernizing the financial system, relieving institutions of the burden of custodial resources for millions of clients while providing transparency and security to the ecosystem.
Asset tokenization is also highlighted as a solution to isolate risks and shield operations against fraud through auditable and real-time traceable smart contracts, with the possibility of automatically collecting taxes, reducing operational costs and bureaucracy.
Despite scalability challenges, the market is already testing solutions, such as using biometrics for private key recovery and second-layer blockchains like Liquid and Rails. “In Brazil, we’re testing key recovery via palm scanning, ensuring security even in case of device loss,” reveals Rocelo.
For the CEO, blockchain is not just an extra layer of security but a real path to modernizing the national financial system, improving traceability, reducing fraud, and lowering compliance costs. “Blockchain is the fastest way to track and remove money from circulation in suspicious transactions while combating money laundering and currency evasion,” he states.
International experiences reinforce this view, such as the use of stablecoins and blockchain for payments in Switzerland and Argentina, where Brazilians can already pay via PIX, instantly converted to USDT, with complete transaction records.
Rocelo emphasizes that Brazil could lead this transformation if the Central Bank and regulators support startups and companies developing these solutions. “The billion-dollar hack is a warning that we need to evolve, and fast. Blockchain, intelligent monitoring, and cooperation among parties are essential to shield the financial system and prevent new large-scale damages,” he concludes.
