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A catalyst has finally arrived, shaking Bitcoin out of its range once again—unfortunately, it’s a negative one. At 2:44 AM, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou confirmed that the exchange had been hacked. Their Ethereum wallet was compromised, leading to the theft of $1.4 billion worth of ETH. Bybit has assured customers that all funds remain secure and that no users have been affected. A sigh of relief for those holding funds on the exchange, but not exactly a confidence boost for sentiment around centralised exchanges.
The culprits? ‘The Lazarus Group’—a notorious North Korean hacking collective, allegedly backed by the North Korean government. Laundering $1.4 billion in ETH is no small feat, especially with the wallets immediately blacklisted. The sum is too large for mixers, so what’s their move? They’ve started bridging the funds to Solana, sparking speculation that they’ll create memecoins and use side wallets to extract the funds. If the past few months haven’t been a loud enough warning to avoid memecoins, this should be the final nail in the coffin. Stay away…
Bitcoin was knocking on the door of $100K, reaching a high of $99.5K off the back of bullish SEC developments and positive momentum. But as soon as the Bybit news hit, markets reacted instantly—Bitcoin plunged over 5%, wiping out the slow, steady gains of the past few days, while altcoins suffered even more.
Although Bybit user funds remain unaffected, the hack underscores the vulnerability of centralised exchanges. If one exploit has been found, who’s to say another won’t emerge—potentially affecting customer funds next time? This is why we advocate for our Stormrake Custody Solution over storing assets on exchanges. If you’re still keeping funds on an exchange, we strongly encourage you to move them to our custody service for protection against potential hacks. Contact your Stormrake Broker or log into the Stormrake Client Portal for deposit instructions.
Stormrake Spotlight: Ondo Finance (ONDO) ($1.10)
Stormrake Spotlight: Ondo Finance (ONDO) ($1.10)
Ondo’s reversal signals have been completely invalidated following the Bybit hack. It’s now down almost 12%, testing the bottom of its accumulation zone and the 0.236 Fibonacci level.
BTC/USD Key Levels and Price Action:
BTC/USD Key Levels and Price Action:
Bitcoin was a whisker away from $100K, touching the bottom of the CPR level before getting instantly rejected. Coincidentally, this happened just as the Bybit news broke, sending BTC tumbling. It’s now back below all major moving averages and even the key $95.7K level, where it currently trades.
BTC Total ETF Flows for 21 Feb: $ -60.1 million
(ETF flow data is sourced from https://farside.co.uk/btc/ and reflects figures at the time of writing.)
ETH/USD Key Levels and Price Action:
ETH/USD Key Levels and Price Action:
Like Bitcoin, Ethereum was just shy of a key level—$2,865—before tumbling below all moving averages, flipping momentum back to the bears. ETH remains in a broader consolidation range but is now likely to retest the lower support at $2,556.
ETH Total ETF Flows for 21 Feb: $ (data not available at the time of writing)
(ETF flow data is sourced from https://farside.co.uk/eth/ and reflects figures at the time of writing.)
*All prices are denominated in USD unless stated otherwise*
Written by Alexandar Artis
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