BTC Dips Below $80k Market Turbulence Intensifies
By Kapil Rajyaguru
Bybit Hack: Thief Washes 18% of $1.4bn Haul in 60 Hours
Bybit suffered a significant security breach last Friday, losing 401K ETH – worth around $1.4 billion – in one of the largest crypto heists in history.
The attack has been widely attributed to the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group, a notorious hacking entity responsible for multiple high-profile crypto thefts.
Despite the breach, Bybit swiftly replenished its ETH liquidity through other exchanges and brokers, ensuring that withdrawals remained functional.
The Bybit hack sent ripples through the market and initially caused ETH to plummet from $2,850 to $2,600.
The attacker behind the massive Bybit exploit has already laundered 18% of the stolen funds in just 60 hours.
blockchain analysis firm EmberCN revealed that the hacker successfully laundered 89,500 ETH, valued at about $224 million.
Michael Saylor Buys Another $2bn BTC After Presenting $81tn ‘Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Plan’ To SEC.
Michael Saylor and Crypto Leaders Meet SEC Task Force to Push for Clear Regulations.
- Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) announced another 20,356 BTC purchase worth $1.99 billion at $97,514 per bitcoin.
- FOX News reported that Michael Saylor met with the US SEC taskforce last Friday.
Saylor’s strategic Bitcoin reserve plan aims to generate up to $81 trillion to ease the US debt crisis.
- Last week, Saylor had suggested the US government should secure 20% of Bitcoin’s total supply.
- Crypto industry leaders, including Michael Saylor, Coinbase, Robinhood, and OpenSea, met with the SEC’s Crypto Task Force to push for regulatory clarity.
- Discussions focused on defining crypto securities, stablecoin classifications, and establishing a clear regulatory framework.
SEC Drops Lawsuits against Coinbase, OpenSea, Robinhood, Gemini and Uniswap
The same day that Coinbase announced the end of its legal woes against SEC, Devin Finzer, CEO/founder of the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, tweeted that the SEC was “closing its investigation” into the platform.
On February 24, crypto-friendly online brokerage Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) announced that the SEC “had concluded its investigation and did not intend to move forward with an enforcement action” against its Robinhood Crypto unit.
On February 25, Uniswap Labs announced that the SEC’s probe into its decentralized finance (DeFi) platform “has officially been closed, and the SEC is taking no enforcement action.”
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has closed its investigation into crypto exchange Gemini, the regulator will not recommend an enforcement action.
With the SEC throwing in the litigation towel in nearly all its active cases, onlookers are wondering why the regulator hasn’t shown similar mercy to XRP-issuer Ripple Labs. The Ripple suit, which dates back to December 2020, has gone back and forth in the courts, with both sides collecting procedural victories and losses along the way.
Metaplanet Buys The Dip Scooping Up 135 BTC, El Salvador Back Buying Bitcoin.
On Feb. 25, Japanese investment firm Metaplanet announced that it had purchased an additional 135 BTC for around $96,000 per bitcoin.
The $13 million buy has increased the firm’s total holdings to 2,235 BTC, worth around $205 million at current market prices.
The latest purchase has propelled Metaplanet to the fifteenth-largest corporate holder of BTC globally, just behind Voyager Digital, according to BitBO.
The Japanese firm is not the only one buying the dip. El Salvador purchased a further 8 BTC this week, adding to its stash, which now totals 6,088 BTC worth around $560 million.
Cardano (ADA) ETF Approval Odds Surge in the US After Key Development.
- The SEC acknowledged Grayscale’s application to introduce a spot ADA ETF in America.
- The asset manager also seeks to convert its XRP Trust into an ETF, with similar filings pushing the approval odds to 74% before the end of 2025.
The SEC’s acknowledgment has increased the chances of the product seeing the light of day before the end of 2025. According to Polymarket, the odds have risen from 52% on February 24 to 66% as of now.
Grayscale Files for Polkadot ETF.
Grayscale Investments has officially filed for a Polkadot (DOT) exchange-traded fund (ETF), marking another step in its push to bring crypto assets into mainstream financial markets.
Eric Balchunas, senior Bloomberg ETF analyst, confirmed the filing, highlighting Grayscale’s continued expansion into regulated investment products.
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