In the early hours of June 30th, at 12:18 AM, Rocelo Lopes, CEO of SmartPay and creator of the self-custody wallet Truther, detected unusual activity on the company's platforms and immediately increased the validation filters for USDT and Bitcoin purchases. The quick action allowed for the retention of large sums of money and the immediate initiation of the repayment of the amounts to the involved institutions.
There were more than 30 transaction attempts; 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 have gained extensive experience in monitoring suspicious crypto transactions through tools and processes we have developed, aligned with a deep understanding of the market and blockchain technology. I believe we can be very helpful in this incident," says 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 funds in real time. "They focused on monitoring clients and institutions, but they forgot what happens after the institutions. The private sector is okay, but what happens after that is not," he assesses.
Rocelo highlights that blockchain could have mitigated or even prevented part of the loss, allowing transactions to be traced from the origin using immutable "digital stamps" that would facilitate the immediate blocking of suspicious funds via smart contracts. "If fraud is detected, the system automatically blocks 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.
In addition to traceability, blockchain offers privacy and security to the user by transferring the custody of transaction keys to the client and decentralizing risks. "When centralized, the attack point is easier. When decentralized, not even the balances are visible for attack. The user becomes responsible for their own key, as we already do at Truther," he points out.
For Rocelo, public blockchains, not private ones, are the true way to modernize the financial system, relieving institutions of the burden of safeguarding the resources of millions of clients while providing transparency and security to the ecosystem.
Asset tokenization is also seen as a solution to isolate risks and shield operations against fraud, through auditable and traceable smart contracts in real time, with the possibility of automatically collecting taxes, reducing operational costs and bureaucracies.
Despite scalability challenges, the market is already testing solutions such as the use of biometrics for private key recovery and second-layer blockchains like Liquid and Rails. "We are testing in Brazil the key recovery via palm of the hand, 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 way to modernize the national financial system, improve traceability, reduce fraud, and lower 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/she/they states.
International experiences reinforce this view, 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 highlights that Brazil could lead this transformation if the Central Bank and regulators supported startups and companies developing these solutions. "The billion-dollar hack is a warning that we need to evolve, and quickly. Blockchain, intelligent monitoring, and cooperation among parties are essential to safeguard the financial system and prevent new large-scale losses," he concludes.
