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Bybit has "fully closed the ETH gap," says CEO after $1.4 billion Lazarus hack |
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Key points: |
Dubai-based centralized exchange Bybit has fully replaced the $1.4 billion ETH hacked last Friday. A proof-of-reserves will be published very soon. The price of Bitcoin barely flinched (only down 3%) while the industry faced an enormous crisis.
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News - Bybit CEO Ben Zhou says that the cryptocurrency exchange has fully replaced the $1.4 billion worth of Ethereum hacked on Friday, February 21. North Korean hacker organization Lazarus Group is allegedly behind the attack. |
Zhou also confirmed in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on February 24 that a new proof-of-reserves audit will be published very soon. This report would show that Bybit's client assets are back at 1:1 through the Merkle tree. |
The blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain estimated that Bybit received 446,870 ETH, worth around $1.23 billion, from loans, purchases, and whale deposits. A Bybit-linked wallet purchased 157,660 ETH from crypto investment firms Galaxy Digital, FalconX, and Wintermute via over-the-counter purchases, which occur off exchanges and won't impact market prices. |
Another address "0xd7CF...A995" that is "likely" tied to Bybit has interacted with CEX and DEX exchanges, purchasing $304 million worth of Ethereum. |
Masterclass in crisis management - In the immediate aftermath of the hack, users feared that their crypto withdrawals will be paused. Ten hours after Friday's hack, Zhou updated that there were 350k withdrawal requests, and 99.994% of them had been completed. |
An update on February 22 from Bybit noted that 580k withdrawals were completed, and the services remained functional across all tokens. |
Ye announces memecoin launch, but investors look unimpressed |
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Key points: |
Kanye West is launching his own memecoin, drawing both enthusiasm and skepticism from crypto participants. Ye distanced himself from the YZY token through a post on X, claiming they were fake and he is "launching next week." If Ye's token doesn't meet expectations, it could lead to another round of losses for those caught up in the hype.
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News - Ye, the 47-year-old artist who used to be called Kanye West, is preparing to launch his memecoin. This came after YZY tokens began to circulate in the market but the rapper has distanced himself from them, claiming they are "fake". |
Ye's foray into crypto comes after a series of controversies that have taken a hit on his business ventures. In 2022, Ye was dropped by Balenciaga, Adidas, and his talent agency after making antisemitic comments and praising Hitler in a live interview. |
The controversy continued in 2025 and Ye has called himself a "Nazi" on X and listed a T-shirt bearing a swastika on the Yeezy website. He has since gone back on calling himself that, but the events help explain why someone like Ye might be drawn to memecoins. |
The censorship-resistant spirit of crypto could help the artist get around platforms like Shopify that have cut ties with him. |
YZY fake? Ye yet to launch his own - In a post on X on February 22, Ye distanced himself from the YZY token already in the market, stating that his coin would launch next week. This raised concerns about another speculative bubble. |
The crypto market has often witnessed high-profile figures back tokens that eventually led to a rug pull. The current memecoin market is in a slump and has faced steep losses after giving in to the early frenzy around tokens such as Official Trump and Argentina's Libra. |
Barkmeta and account sale rumors - There was a rumor that Ye had sold his X account to a memecoin trader called Barkmeta, who allegedly masterminded the POX token rug pull in 2022. This led to the fear that the rapper's coin would lead to yet another pump and dump. |
With mounting concerns about Ye's memecoin impacting the market and the potential for Barkmeta's involvement, this story is one to watch as it will likely have more twists down the road. |
Bitcoin volatility near record lows: Calm before the storm? |
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Key points: |
The Bitcoin 1-week realized volatility was at 23.32%, near record lows. Analytics firm Glassnode observed that such compressions are generally followed by major price moves. Michael Saylor hinted at having bought more BTC for MSTR last week.
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News - On-chain analytics firm Glassnode revealed that the realized volatility of Bitcoin has likely never been lower. Similar compressions have led to major market moves in the past; it reported on February 21. |
Bitcoin has been trading within a 5% price range for almost three weeks. The initial panic around the Bybit hack failed to drive prices below the local support at $95.2k. The 1-week realized volatility stood at 23.32%. |
The decreased volatility came alongside a drop in Open Interest across exchanges, dropping to the lowest levels since February 9, based on data from Coinglass. |
Is this not a seller's market? - The altcoin market has faced huge losses since January 18. The altcoin market capitalization (not including Ethereum) has fallen 24.8% in just over a month, standing at $856 billion. Bitcoin, however, continued to stand tall. |
Not even the Bybit hack of $1.4 billion was enough to send the prices flying lower. This was an anomaly. If the cycle top was indeed already in, such news would be a perfect storm to crash the market, like we saw during the FTX saga. |
Saylor hints at buying more Bitcoin - In what has become a pattern recently, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor posted a chart of the firm's current Bitcoin holdings chart. This move generally comes around the time of the announcement of a large BTC buy from the company. Saylor commented "I don't think this chart reflects what I got last week", confirming another MSTR buy. |
Impending Solana unlock sees whales engage in bearish options plays |
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Key points: |
SOL put options accounted for most of the block trades that crossed the tape on Deribit last week. A slowdown in on-chain activity since mid-January weighed the sentiment down. The FTX estate bankruptcy proceedings and the $2.07 billion SOL unlock spurred bearishness.
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News - The bearish sentiment behind Solana was shown on the Deribit options market as SOL saw whales engaging in bearish bets. The price of the token continued to trend downward, standing at $156 on Monday, and could fall below key support $150 next. Deribit accounts for 85% of the global crypto options activity. |
Last week, SOL block trades amounting to $32.9 million in notional value were seen on Deribit, roughly 25% of the total options activity of $130.74 million. In options, a "block trade" refers to a significant, privately negotiated options transaction involving two parties with a large number of contracts. |
Solana whales anticipate price drop - The trades are typically executed outside of the regular order book and are considered whale activity. Occurring off the regular order book and the trade then booked on the exchange means their market impact would be minimal. |
Options give the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell the underlying asset. Put option provides the right to sell. Last week's spike in put contracts suggested traders were hedging against, or preparing to profit from, a potential price slide. |
Solana has shed close to 46% in value in five weeks. Memecoin trading on the ecosystem saw heightened on-chain activity, reaching a crescendo when Trump launched his memecoin just before the Presidential inauguration. Since then, the daily volume has fallen significantly. |
Token unlock adds to bullish woes - Deribit's Asia Business Development Head Lin Chen stated that Solana will have a major SOL token unlock on March 1, worth $2.07 billion. The unlock would come from the FTX estate, part of the bankruptcy proceedings following the crypto exchange's collapse in 2022. |
The large unlock could breed volatility. While it represented only 2.29% of the Solana market capitalization, it was close to 60% of the daily spot trading volume of the token. Hence, it was natural to see hedging and increased flow to put options, stated Chen. |
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More stories from the crypto ecosystem |
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Did you know? |
The recent Bybit hack saw the Lazarus Group swipe $1.4 billion worth of Ethereum from a Bybit cold wallet. The multi-sig cold storage solution is a leading option for long-term cold storage, but other recent hacks such as WazirX and Phemex also saw similar multi-sig signers tricked into approving what seemed like a legitimate, routine wallet transaction move. This revealed a disturbing pattern of human-targeted security failure. Like many fiat currencies, Dogecoin also experiences inflation. It has a fixed annual addition of around 5 billion DOGE to the total supply. Currently, that translates to a 3.3% inflation rate - roughly comparable to the U.S. Dollar. Over time, DOGE's inflation rate will fall as the supply steadily rises. The alt seasons of 2017 and 2020 are wildly different from what can be expected in 2024-25. Data showed there were 36.4 million altcoins in the market now, compared to just 3,000 in the 2017-18 alt season, and less than 500 in 2013-14. This dilution means that it is harder for a proper alt season to ensue, and even then, only selected coins will witness outsized gains.
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Top 3 coins of the day |
Raydium (RAY) |
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Key points: |
At press time, RAY was trading at $2.91, down 31% for the day. The range lows did little to halt the bearish move as reports swirled about a Pump.fun AMM.
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What you should know: |
Raydium saw a breakout beyond the range formation a month ago, but the falling activity on the Solana network meant that the DEX token RAY saw increased losses in recent weeks. The range lows at $4, which had been a crucial support zone since November, were smashed apart and the price fell 30% within a day. The MACD showed a bearish crossover, confirming the new bout of downward momentum. Moreover, the CMF showed a reading of -0.37, and Binance saw spot trading volumes of 26 million RAY and counting on Monday. The sharp price drop can be attributed to reports that Pump.fun was testing its in-house AMM that could replace Raydium. |
TRON (TRX) |
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Key points: |
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What you should know: |
TRON has traded within a range since mid-January. The mid-range resistance at $0.247 was flipped from resistance to support after four tries in the past two weeks. At the same time, the RSI has managed to stay above neutral 50, consolidating the short-term bullish outlook for the altcoin. The defense of the $0.222 level, which was also the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement level, meant that there is still hope for a bullish revival once the current range is broken. According to the OBV, February saw slow but persistent buying pressure. Continued demand could see TRON move toward the range highs at $0.27, a 10% price move swing traders can target. |
Ethereum (ETH) |
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Key points: |
The higher timeframe swing structure indicated that ETH's outlook remained bearish, despite short-term accumulation. The supply zone at $2.8k-$3k would be a tough obstacle to overcome, and this battle would take time to resolve.
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What you should know: |
Ethereum maintained its bearish swing structure on the higher timeframes, and therefore swing traders should be cautious of bidding the leading altcoin. This is doubly true since the $2.8k-$3k is a tough resistance zone and also a key psychological level. The Awesome Oscillator showed slight bullish momentum on the 12-hour chart, but ETH has faced another rejection from the $2.8k resistance in recent hours. The A/D indicator showed that bulls have the upper hand due to rising accumulation in February. This could see a move beyond the local high at $2,878, but bulls must not hold high hopes in the near term. |
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