Source: Cointelegraph Original: "{title}"
Whether you are a newcomer or a veteran in cryptocurrency, this week's market is not optimistic. Bybit suffered the largest hack in the industry's 15-year history, with Bitcoin (BTC) plummeting over 20% from its highs, and U.S. President Donald Trump getting closer to imposing a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico. Bitcoin proxy stocks also crashed due to poor earnings, operational losses, and their strong correlation with BTC.
This week's Crypto Biz newsletter analyzes the aftermath of the Bybit hack, the latest price drop of Strategy, and Paolo Ardoino's warning about politicians wanting to "kill Tether."
On February 21, Bybit was targeted in a $1.4 billion exploit linked to the Lazarus Group associated with North Korea, aimed at the exchange's Ethereum token wallet. Bybit CEO Ben Zhou subsequently declared war on the Lazarus Group and vowed to do everything possible to recover the lost funds. At the same time, he assured users that Bybit had "returned to 100% 1:1 customer assets."
The subsequent forensic investigation confirmed the involvement of the Lazarus Group in the attack and identified Safe(Wallet) as the compromised vehicle.
SafeWallet developers issued a statement regarding the Bybit exploit. Source: SafeWallet Safe
Bybit stated, "Forensic reviews conducted by Sygnia and Verichains show that 'a certificate of a Safe developer was leaked […] allowing the attacker to access the Safe (wallet) infrastructure without authorization and completely deceive the signer into approving malicious transactions."
Bitcoin mining stocks Bitdeer Technologies and Cipher Mining plummeted after releasing their fourth-quarter financial reports. Bitdeer's earnings and revenue fell short of expectations, with its stock price dropping over 25%. Cipher's stock fell more than 17% after reporting that its operational losses had more than doubled year-on-year.
With Bitcoin's 2024 halving, which will cut mining rewards in half, some miners have been struggling to adapt. Bitdeer stated that its weak performance was "mainly affected by the halving in April 2024."
As Bitcoin's price has dropped over 20% from January's all-time highs, Michael Saylor's Strategy stock has also seen a significant decline. Since the beginning of this year, MSTR has fallen by 16%.
The advantage of Strategy lies in its ability to raise funds through its continuously expanding Bitcoin treasury. However, market critics The Kobeissi Letter believe that "if its liabilities are significantly higher than its assets, this ability may deteriorate."
Meanwhile, Strategy remains undeterred by the volatility of Bitcoin prices. Earlier this week, it announced the acquisition of an additional 20,356 BTC for $1.99 billion.
Strategy is the world's largest Bitcoin corporate finance company, holding 499,096 BTC on its balance sheet. Mining company MARA Holdings is far ahead, with 45,659 BTC on its balance sheet.
Source: Michael Saylor
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino warned that hostile politicians are trying to squeeze the world's largest stablecoin issuer out of the cryptocurrency market.
Ardoino posted on the X social media platform that competitors should focus on building better products than Tether. However, "their true intention is to 'kill Tether'," Ardoino said.
Source: Paolo Ardoino
"He continued, 'Every business or political meeting they have culminates in this intention."
The irony in trying to stifle Tether is that (USDT) is "the most successful tool for dollar hegemony and issuing dollars in emerging markets," Ardoino said.
With a market cap of over $140 billion, USDT is the most popular stablecoin in the world to date.
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