On February 22, 2025

Two pieces of news, one bad and one good. Let's start with the bad news, which I believe everyone already knows: bybit has been hacked for over 500,000 ETH, worth nearly 1.5 billion USD, making it the largest amount stolen to date. According to SlowMist's analysis, the hacker's attack mainly involved obfuscating the transfer signatures of the cold wallet in advance, gaining multi-signature permissions for the cold wallet, and thus executing the theft. Another detail is that the device with three multi-signature permissions was previously implanted with a Trojan by the hacker. Currently, this attack event has details pointing to North Korean hackers, and if true, it is certainly irretrievable.

This is a huge crisis for bybit and its users. However, fortunately, bybit's profits are considerable, and it can basically earn back this loss in a year. The peak withdrawal period has passed, and there has been no run on the exchange. But for Ethereum and its holders, this is bad news. Currently, bybit has no plans to buy back the stolen ETH, and the hacker has already sold 20,000 ETH. If the hacker continues to sell, it will inevitably create huge selling pressure on the price of Ethereum. In fact, the strong momentum of the market yesterday was abruptly reversed by this blow, and the short-term market will depend on the actions of the hacker and bybit.

Now let's talk about the good news: the previously bankrupt FTX has begun to distribute the first batch of compensation payments, which have been arriving one after another. Public data shows the total amount is between 7 billion and 8 billion USD, mainly distributed in the form of stablecoins. For the crypto market, this batch of stablecoins represents an important capital injection. In fact, the strong performance of the market yesterday may have been influenced by this influx of funds. The funds previously in FTX were mainly existing funds from the crypto sphere. Although the prices of BTC, SOL, and others have significantly risen compared to before, there is certainly a portion of these funds with a strong willingness to re-enter the market.

The recent market has basically been dominated by consolidation. In fact, the price on February 3rd was essentially a phase low point, and yesterday's strong market, if not affected by the bybit hacking incident, would likely have continued. However, the impact of any sudden events on the trend is only short-term and temporary. I believe that if there are opportunities for low prices ahead, it is still a good chance to buy and hold. Specifically, continue to focus on Ethereum as the main target, with DeFi blue chips as a secondary focus.