Crypto News

The Bybit hack has increased fears over centralized exchange security vulnerabilities US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs are increasing market uncertainty Trump’s crypto promises may have started as being great, but they could end up proving catastrophic Three things are contributing to the drop in crypto prices, which has seen Bitcoin fall 7.50% over 24 hours to $78,000, according to Unity Wallet’s COO. BTC price at $78,000. Source: CoinMarketCap It’s a significant drop from Bitcoin’s all-time high, which reached $109,000 in January ahead of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration. According to James Toledano, it feels like optimism around the crypto market post-election created a bubble and that the “reality post-inauguration is now setting in – and hard,” he said to CoinJournal. In Toledano’s view, the Bybit hack at the crypto exchange last Friday—which resulted in the theft of nearly $1.5 billion worth of Ethereum —is one of the contributing factors affecting...

Bitcoin Pepe (BPEP) is seeing notable presale momentum after the US Securities and Exchange Commission released guidance on meme coins. As investors position amid the current bear market sentiment, here’s what the SEC said and why Bitcoin Pepe could be the meme coin to watch in coming months. Bitcoin slumps below $80k- a buy opportunity? The regulator’s commentary on meme coins came as the crypto market continued to witness massive bloodbath. Bitcoin slumped more than 7% to dip below $80k, while Ethereum, XRP and Solana crashed. This carnage that followed bearish sentiment amid risk asset sell-off on tariff concerns and outflows from spot exchange-traded funds, also saw meme coins bleed. Dogecoin, Pepe, Shiba Inu and Official Trump all recorded double-digit declines. But with a potential bounce likely, investors positioning themselves for this are looking at what could prove to be major gems. Analysts say the 20-30% or more pullbacks could be an opportunity to buy low. The SEC...

Key takeaways iDEGEN’s native token has slightly dipped to the $0.003 level as the broader crypto market underperforms. $IDGN is gearing up to launch on the BitMart exchange in a few days. What is iDEGEN? iDEGEN is a leading memecoin and AI project that has raised millions of dollars from investors. This memecoin will offer massive utility to its users by launching several products and services.  The iDEGEN presale raised $25 million and the funds will be used to develop several products and services. In their whitepaper, the developers explained that iDEGEN is a meme project that leverages the benefits of AI to create the next billion-dollar memecoin. It is an AI tool that primarily functions as such.  The tool continuously evolves and adapts by leveraging community feeds on X. While iDEGEN is powered by AI, degens ultimately raise the tool.  Its native token, $IDGN, is now live on crypto exchanges, and will power all the various activities within the ecosystem...

MyShell price jumped 34% to a new all-time high of $0.68. The AI token gained after Binance announced listing of SHELL with an airdrop on Feb. 27. MyShell (SHELL) rose sharply on Thursday as the market jostled for positioning amid the artificial intelligence related project’s anticipated listing on crypto exchange Binance. Gains for SHELL defied the overall downturn, with most cryptocurrencies in the red on the day and overthe past week. Binance listing catapults MyShell price to new high SHELL, the native token of the AI consumer layer MyShell, spiked more than 34% to reach a new all-time high of $0.68. The project, which is building an agentic framework for AI agents, benefited from upside momentum catalysed by news that Binance will add trading support for SHELL. Having changed hands around $0.45, MyShell price rocketed to above $0.60 and broke the previous ATH reached on Feb. 17. The token’s uptick means the current price is about 188% from the lows of $0.21 seen on Feb. ...

Stacks’ sBTC gains traction with UTXO, SNZ, Jump Crypto as early adopters. With this adoption, the demand for sBTC has tripled capacity in under 24 hours. The sBTC unlocks Bitcoin DeFi, with withdrawals set to start in March 2025. A new wave of institutional adoption is sweeping through the Bitcoin ecosystem as Stacks, a prominent Bitcoin Layer 2 solution, celebrates the rapid uptake of its decentralized, Bitcoin-backed asset, sBTC. Leading the charge among early sBTC adopters are industry heavyweights UTXO Management, SNZ, and Jump Crypto, signalling strong confidence in sBTC’s potential to unlock decentralized finance (DeFi) utility for Bitcoin holders worldwide. UTXO Management, a key player with its venture arm backing top Bitcoin companies and its liquid fund 210k Capital deploying resources across public and private markets, has embraced sBTC as part of its Bitcoin strategy. Jump Crypto, a division of the renowned Jump Trading Group, brings its expertise as a quantitativ...

Bitcoin price fell to lows of $82,131, dipping to levels seen in November 2024. The BTC sell-off happens after Trump’s latest tariffs announcement, including a 25% tarriffs on the EU. Equities also dumped, with the S&P 500 seeing $500 billion wiped off. The price of Bitcoin dropped more than 6% in 24 hours to break below $84,000 on Wednesday. Notably, Bitcoin price has touched its lowest levels since November 2024, when it rose amid election momentum. According to crypto and stocks trader IncomeSharks, the market is bearish . BTC sold-off as the crypto market reacted to trade war sentiment, with this coming on the heels of the latest tariffs announcement by President Donald Trump. Having announced that the 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and 10% on China will go into effect in April, Trump said he would slap 25% tariffs on the European Union. The news saw the S&P 500 fall, with over $500 billion in market cap wiped off. Bitcoin dips amid ETFs outflows As equities re...

Gotbit founder and CEO Aleksei Andriunin was extradited to the US on Feb. 25, the US Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts said. The 26-year old Russian national was arrested in October 2024 over allegations of market manipulation and fraud. Aleksei Andriunin, the founder and CEO Gotbit, has been extradited to the US where he faces charges of wire fraud and market manipulation. U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts said in a press release on Feb. 26 that Andriunin, a 26-year old Russian national, manipulated crypto markets “on behalf of client cryptocurrency companies.” He was arrested in October 2024 in Portugal, with a federal jury indicting him over wire fraud and conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud. Gotbit founder touted a “code” for wash trading Specifically, the US Department of Justice alleges that Andriunin undertook wash trading, with these trades aimed at manipulating volume on behalf of crypto companies . According to prosecuto...

DeFi growth expected to gather steam with projections that its revenue could hit $376.9M in 2025. Autonomous Agents are expected to play a crucial role in the growth of the DeFi ecosystem. Autonomous agents execute trades fast, operate 24/7, and adapt to markets. Navigating the DeFi realm has become increasingly more sophisticated in recent years replete with a large number of protocols, chains, and strategies. The DeFi market projected to generate a revenue of $376.9 million by 2025 seeing that its TVL hit $138 billion this past December. As the market grows, the scale of potential opportunities on offer is matched only by the cognitive demands placed on its participants. This has created a perfect storm for automated trading tools to enter the fray, helping allay many of the human limitations currently permeating this sector. For instance, these tools are capable of executing trades in seconds or milliseconds, an aspect crucial in volatile markets where timing can mean the ...

iDEGEN’s presale ends today, February 26, 2025. About 24 hours later, the project’s native token IDGN will debut on DEX. As the community looks towards the listing, the final hours of presale have sent the ICO above $25 million. Here’s what to know about iDEGEN and its upcoming market debut. When’s the iDEGEN AI launch? While the market is looking for a footing after the latest downturn , sentiment is largely positive. And after a stellar two months of presale traction, new AI crypto project iDEGEN is in the final hours before hitting exchanges. The excitement is high among investors eyeing iDEGEN’s debut on decentralized exchange Raydium on February 27, 2025. Days later, the AI agentic project will land on BitMart – its first CEX. This happens on March 4, potentially the first major exchange to add IDGN trading in a flurry that could include most of the industry’s top platforms. iDEGEN presale hits $25 million Ahead of several other milestones, iDEGEN has hit $25 million in p...

Richard Teng indicated that the crypto market tends to bounce back after major geopolitical events Teng’s remarks come as Bitcoin dropped below $90,000 earlier this week following the news of US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs on Canada and Mexico What we’re seeing with crypto market prices is a “tactual retreat, not a reversal,” according to Binance’s CEO. In a series of posts on X , Richard Teng said crypto markets typically bounce back after major events. “History has shown that crypto markets react to macroeconomic shifts much like traditional assets, but they also bounce back with remarkable resilience,” he said, adding “what we are witnessing now is another short-term tactical retreat, far from a structural decline.” History has shown that crypto markets react to macroeconomic shifts much like traditional assets, but they also bounce back with remarkable resilience. Remember 2022? #Bitcoin briefly dipped below $20,000 during Fed rate hikes, only to recover as con...

Crypto prices traded within a range last week as crypto takes is relegated to the back burner in the wake of economic uncertainties. ETF inflows were negative as Bitcoin ETFs logged net outflows of $62.9Mn while Ethereum ETFs logged $8.9Mn in outflows. Bitcoin Bitcoin’s price action continued trading rangebound, with weekly highs and lows of $99,509 and $93,331, as uncertainty looms around inflation, Trump’s policies, and geopolitical events. Zooming out, we see that price action has ranged at the daily support level for the last three weeks as current market conditions lack sufficient catalyst to push prices to new highs. Open interest mimics price action as the week began with a reduction in the volume of open contracts which picked up on Wednesday, Feb. 19, congruent with price action. Outlook Bitcoin must remain above the daily support of $90,673 to remain in bullish territory. A close below this level on the daily time frame could trigger a fall to the $84,000 level. M...

Bankman-Fried expressed his sympathy for government employees who have lost their jobs His parents are working to get him a presidential pardon from Donald Trump Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison last March for his involvement in FTX’s collapse Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has posted on social media for the first time in two years, stating that “firing people is one of the hardest things to do in the world.” In a series of posts on X , Bankman-Fried expressed sympathy for government employees who have lost their jobs. His comments come as US President Donald Trump’s administration has laid off or put staff on leave. Bankman-Fried said: “I have a lot of sympathy for gov’t employees: I, too, have not checked my email for the past few (hundred) days. And I can confirm that being unemployed is a lot less relaxing than it looks.” Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison last March for his involvement in the FTX collapse, went on to say that firi...

Metaplanet now holds 2,235 bitcoin. The publicly-traded company is the ‘Strategy’ of Asia and aims to hit 10,000 BTC by end of 2025. Metaplanet, the Japanese investment firm that has become one of the most aggressive buyers of Bitcoin, has added to its holdings with a fresh 135 BTC purchase. The company announced the purchase of the $12.9 million BTC on Tuesday, Feb. 25. Metaplanet acquired the Bitcoin at the average buy price of 14.3 million yen, or about $95,951 per BTC. Metaplanet buys more BTC As the company revealed in a release, this purchase brings Metaplanet’s total holdings to 2,235 BTC. It sees the company’s BTC haul rise significantly, having stood 1,761 BTC on December 31, 2024. Notably, Metaplanet held just 141 bitcoins on June 30, 2024.at the end of June 2024. This Bitcoin buying followed the investment firm’s decision to adopt BTC as a treasury strategy in April, with the move drawing inspiration from Michael Saylor’s Strategy ( formerly MicroStrategy ). On M...

OKX pleads guilty to DOJ charges of operating unlicensed money transmitting business. Exchange to pay a fine of $84 million and forfeit $421 million earned in fees from US customers. The exchange agrees to the penalties after a Department of Justice investigation. Crypto exchange OKX will forfeit $421 million earned as fees from customers in the United States, the exchange announced on Feb. 24. According to OKX, its affiliate Aux Cayes FinTech Co. Ltd., had reached a settlement with the US Department of Justice following an investigation into the company’s operations. OKX pleaded guilty to charges of operating as unlicensed money transmitting business. Specifically, the OKX platform acknowledged that legacy compliance gaps might have seen a number of U.S. customers trade on the exchange’s global platform. We cooperated with the US Dept of Justice in their thorough investigation of our business. We had a small percentage of customers who were able to use our international serv...

Infini’s exploit follows the Bybit hack that resulted in the loss of $1.5 billion last week Infini’s attacker had previously worked on the project’s development contract and secretly retained the admin rights Christian Li said full compensation can be paid and that the funds were being traced Infini, a stablecoin neobank, reportedly suffered an exploit that resulted in a loss of $49.5 million. According to blockchain security company Beosin Alert, the stolen USDC was converted into 17,696 Ethereum before transferring the funds to an external wallet. The @0xinfini contract was attacked, resulting in an estimated loss of $49.5 million. The stolen USDC has now been fully converted into 17,696 ETH and is currently transferred to 0xfcC8Ad911976d752890f2140D9F4edd2c64a6e49. We will continue to monitor this incident. — Beosin Alert (@BeosinAlert) February 24, 2025 Posting on X , security firm Cyvers Alerts reported that the attacker had worked on developing the contract as par...

The SEC has received six XRP ETF applications over the last several weeks as interest in traditional crypto investment vehicles continues rising. Coinshares sent a proposal for XRP and Litecoin ETFs while Grayscale sent one for XRP amid several proposals for Solana ETFs. The SEC has received no less than six applications for XRP exchange-traded funds from major issuers like Canary Capital, Grayscale, Bitwise, WisdomTree, 21Shares, and Coinshares. The latest application, Grayscale, began the 21-day comment period on Friday where members of the public can submit feedback on the proposed ETF. While this happens, five Solana ETF applications from 21Shares, Bitwise, Grayscale, VanEck, and Canary await a decision. The rise of interest in ETFs The recent swarm of ETF applications is emblematic of a shift in the regulatory landscape to a more friendly environment. This shift began at the twilight of Gary Gensler’s tenure with the approval of the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. Now that Mar...

The ByBit hack caused some market volatility, although the market is slowly stabilizing amid the exchange’s recovery efforts. Bybit has already managed to fully close the ETH gap caused by the hack. Amid the chaos, Bitcoin Pepe presale is offering investors a safer investment opportunity. The Bybit hack on February 21, 2025, sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency world, with hackers siphoning off close to $1.5 billion in Ethereum (ETH) from the exchange’s cold wallet, marking it as potentially the largest crypto theft in history. However, amid this chaos, the Bitcoin Pepe (BPEP) presale , the first meme ICO on Bitcoin, has emerged as a surprising beacon of stability, raising over $3.1 million and offering a fresh alternative for wary investors. The Bybit Hack Triggered Market Turmoil The Bybit hack attributed by some analysts to North Korea’s Lazarus Group , drained approximately 401,000 Ethereum, prompting a massive $5.5 billion withdrawal spree from Bybit as users panick...

The crypto market was down 3.6% in the past 24 hours, with the total market cap at $3.3 trillion. Top alts, including Ethereum, XRP and Solana have shown strength amid minor dips. Given the industry had just witnessed $1.4 billion stolen from Bybit – the largest ever hack in the history of cryptocurrency – the resilience has investors even more bullish. As traders monitor the situation, part of the attention is on iDEGEN (IDGN). The AI agent token has attracted a notable $24 million in presale so far. But what’s making it trend? Per the iDEGEN presale page , the project lists on exchanges on February 27, 2025. Industry lauds Bybit’s response after $1.4 billion hack On Feb. 21, Bybit confirmed it had suffered the largest ever hack in crypto history. Just hours later, crypto investigator ZachXBT returned with details of who the hackers were. According to the blockchain sleuth, the 401k ETH worth over $1.4 billion looted from Bybit was linked to the Lazarus Group . The North Korea-b...

Safemoon CTO Thomas Smith has pleaded guilty to charges in a $200 million crypto fraud case. US authories arrested the Safemoon exec, alongside CEO Braden John Karony, in 2023. Thomas Smith, the chief technology officer of SafeMoon LLC, has pleaded guilty to two charges of securities fraud conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy. Smith pleaded guilty to the charges at a Brooklyn federal court per filings on Feb. 20. The Safemoon CTO, whose earlier move was to deny the charges, changed tune and admitted to his role in a scheme that saw investors defrauded of more than $200 million. Per the court documents , Smith withdrew his earlier not guilty plea before Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak, a move that marks the latest development in the Department of Justice and US Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against the defunct crypto project’s tech chief. Safemoon CTO’s guilty plea In his plea, the Safemoon CTO admitted to having misled investors regarding the state of SafeMoon’s liq...

The US SEC has approved YLDS, the first yield-bearing stablecoin, with 3.85% APR. YLDS trades 24/7 on Figure Markets and its APR is paid monthly in USD or YLDS. The stablecoin’s APR outperforms Treasury bonds. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved YLDS, the first yield-bearing stablecoin. The stablecoin is officially registered as a public security. Introducing the first-ever SEC-regulated, yield-bearing stablecoin: $YLDS ✅Risk-free yield at SOFR – 50bps (3.85%) ✅No staking or lockups ✅Buy/sell 24×7 It’s time for real assets with real value. pic.twitter.com/Vt1Ilw5jGv — Figure Markets (@FigureMarkets) February 20, 2025 This regulatory milestone signals a new chapter in the evolution of digital assets, blending the reliability of stablecoins with the income-generating potential of traditional financial instruments. The YLDS stablecoin delivers a 3.85% APR Unlike conventional stablecoins, which are typically pegged to a fiat currency like the US d...

Societe Generale-FORGE will launch its EUR CoinVertible stablecoin on the Stellar network. SG-FORGE first deployed EURCV on Ethereum and plans expansion to XRP Ledger. Societe Generale-FORGE (SG-FORGE) has announced the expansion of its EUR CoinVertible stablecoin (EURCV) to the Stellar blockchain. The SG-FORGE team launched the EURO-backed in 2023, deploying it on Ethereum. It then set to expand it to Solana and XRP Ledger. However, it said on Thursday that the stablecoin will now go live on the cross-border payments network. MiCA-compliant stablecoin comes to Stellar The launch brings the MiCA-compliant EURCV to Stellar . SG-FORGE one of the 10 stablecoin issuers to get the greenlight to issue their tokens in the EU. MiCA rules went into full effect on December 30, 2024. A fully compliant Euro stablecoin powered by Stellar. The Societe Generale-FORGE EUR stablecoin has arrived! https://t.co/mfWearB6HE — Stellar (@StellarOrg) February 20, 2025 Deploying the euro-pegge...

Franklin Templeton has launched EZPZ ETF tracking Bitcoin and Ether. The EZPZ ETF is the second US crypto index ETF. The other crypto index is Hashdex’s Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF (NCIQ). Franklin Templeton, a prominent global asset manager, has introduced a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) that provides investors with exposure to both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum’s Ether (ETH). Announced on February 20, 2025, the Franklin Crypto Index ETF, trading under the ticker EZPZ, marks the second crypto index ETF to launch in the United States, following closely on the heels of Hashdex’s Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF (NCIQ), which debuted on February 14. The Franklin Bitcoin and Ether Index ETF The EZPZ fund is designed to track the US CF Institutional Digital Asset Index, a market capitalization-weighted benchmark managed by CF Benchmarks. As of its launch date, the index allocates approximately 87% of its weighting to Bitcoin — currently priced at $98,706 — while Ether, valued at $2,755, a...