$1.5 Billion Hack Hits The Market

Cryptocurrency exchange ByBit was the target of a $1.5 billion hack which ranked as the largest in crypto history. The hackers absconded with more than $1.4 billion in ETH from a Bybit cold wallet, which was quickly replaced by the exchange securing an emergency loan to replenish the stolen 400,000 ETH. It's rumored that the exploit used a “masked” transaction to deceive the system, with the attackers believed to be from the notorious North Korean Lazarus Group.

Elsewhere, pump.fun, the popular meme coin launchpad, is reportedly testing an automated market maker (AMM) feature, which would reroute fees and volume from Raydium back to the platform itself. This comes as the platform’s numbers have slowed recently, with a 25% drop in new tokens launched alongside a drop in volume across the Solana ecosystem.

The SEC has allocated more resources to combating blockchain-based fraud and hacks with?

Its newly-launched Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit (CETU), which will help the crypto space by better protecting investors and “clearing the way for innovation to grow”.

Finally, Strategy, which recently rebranded from MicroStrategy, purchased another 20,356 BTC for approximately $2 billion, taking its total holdings to 499,096 BTC – worth over $47 billion. As it stands, Michael Saylor’s Strategy now holds more than 2.3% of bitcoin’s total 21 million supply.