Lazarus Strikes Again

Crypto exchange Bybit has become the latest victim of the North Korean-sponsored hacking group Lazarus. The $1.4 billion haul is by far the largest heist in the history of crypto – more than double the previous record holder Ronin Network's $624 million heist (see leaderboard). Since the hack, Bybit has successfully closed the gap, and the exchange insists that users' funds remain safe and solvent despite losing 75% of its ETH reserves. But this is the fifth major multisig hack in recent months, raising urgent questions about "blind signing" and basic operational security across the industry.

The buys were at an average price of $97,514 a pop – bringing its total to 499,096 BTC, worth over $46B. Since the last halving, Strategy has snapped up 284,696 BTC, which comes out to 918 BTC a day – more than twice the daily issuance. Why aren’t Bitcoin prices skyrocketing as available supply continues to shrink? Great question.

Today, Robinhood announced the SEC ended its probe “with no action,” mirroring OpenSea’s Friday statement that regulators also closed the books on its unregistered securities inquiry. Both reversals came shortly after Coinbase said that the SEC had agreed to drop charges, pending approval from SEC commissioners, as the regulator continues to shift course under President Trump. For OpenSea, that clears the way to launch its SEA token and multi-chain OS2 upgrade, while Robinhood can keep expanding its crypto business with no enforcement looming overhead.

Ethena, a “synthetic dollar protocol” whose dollar-pegged coin USDe has ballooned to become the fourth largest stablecoin, has reportedly raised $100 million to help fund the launch of a similar token aimed at traditional financial institutions. Ethena currently runs two cryptocurrencies: ENA, the governance token that gives owners a say in the project, and USDe, which is marketed as a “synthetic dollar” and currently offers holders a 9% yield. For a primer on Ethena, check out Arthur Hayes' writeup here.

Hot off the rumor that he is actually Satoshi Nakamoto, Jack Dorsey’s Block (XYZ) reported Q4 earnings that were disappointing. Growth has stalled, and for a company supposedly very focused on BTC, it showed a decrease in crypto revenue in a booming crypto quarter. So, is all hope lost? No, not yet. While the company is running into some growth headwinds, many interesting things are still bubbling under the surface at Block – especially for crypto investors. Block still holds 8,363 BTC with plans to allocate 10% of profits to acquiring more… just launched a mining division… and a crypto wallet. We aren’t buyers yet, but we are paying close attention.