Central Bank hack exposes banking fragility and shows how blockchain can protect financial system

In the early hours of June 30, at 00:18, Rocelo Lopes, CEO of SmartPay and creator of the self-custody wallet Truther, detected atypical movements on the company's platforms and immediately raised the validation filters in the purchases of USDT and Bitcoin. The quick action allowed to retain large sums of money and immediately start returning the amounts to the institutions involved.

“There have been more than 30 attempts at transactions, we prefer not to disclose the amounts to preserve companies, but we have made ourselves fully available to authorities and institutions to support operations involving cryptoactives.In recent years, we have gained a lot of experience in monitoring suspicious transactions with crypto, through tools and processes that we have created, aligned with the deep knowledge of the market and blockchain technology. I believe we can help a lot in this INCIDENT”, says Rocelo Lopes.

For the SmartPay CEO, the incident shows that the financial system needs to evolve, moving from a vulnerable centralized structure to mechanisms capable of tracking transactions and locking suspicious values in real time.“Were concerned with monitoring customers and institutions, but forgot what happens after institutions. The private structure is ok, but what happens after that is not”, he evaluates.

Rocelo points out that the blockchain could have mitigated or even avoided part of the loss, allowing to trace transactions from the origin, using immutable” digital“starimbos that would facilitate the immediate blocking of suspicious values via smart contracts. “If it detects a fraud, the system automatically locks the transaction and requests clarification from those who received it. And we can embed encrypted data into the transaction, such as geolocation, IP and user identification”, he explains.

In addition to traceability, blockchain offers privacy and security to the user, transferring custody of transaction keys to the customer and decentralizing risks.“When centralized, the point of attack is easier.When decentralized, even balances are not visible for attack. The user becomes responsible for the key itself, as we already do at Truther”, he points out.

For Rocelo, public and non-private blockchains are the real way to modernize the financial system, taking away from institutions the burden of safeguarding the resources of millions of customers, while providing transparency and security to the ecosystem.

Asset tokenization is also touted as a solution to isolate risks and shield operations from fraud, through auditable and traceable smart contracts in real time, with the possibility of collecting taxes automatically, reducing operational costs and bureaucracies.

Despite the scalability challenges, the market is already testing solutions, such as the use of biometrics for private key recovery and second-layer blockchains, such as Liquid and Rails.“We are testing in Brazil key recovery via palm of the hand, ensuring security even in case of loss of” devices, reveals Rocelo.

For the CEO, blockchain is not just an extra layer of security, but a real path to modernize the national financial system, improve traceability, reduce fraud and lower compliance costs.“Blockchain is the fastest way to track and get money out of circulation in suspicious transactions, while combating money laundering and currency evasion”, he says.

International experiences reinforce this vision, such as the use of stablecoins and blockchain in payments in Switzerland and Argentina, where Brazilians can already pay via PIX, instantly converted into USDT, with complete transaction records.

Rocelo points out that Brazil could lead this transformation if the Central Bank and regulators supported startups and companies that develop these solutions.“The billionaire hack is a warning that we need to evolve, and fast.Blockchain, intelligent monitoring and cooperation between the parties are essential to shield the financial system and prevent further large-scale damage”, he concludes.