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Crypto Daybook Americas: Bybit Hack Fails to Ruffle Feathers, Traders Eye SOL ETF
By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)
Bitcoin and ether, the two largest digital assets by market value, remain largely within their recent trading ranges two days after the $1.5 billion hack of Bybit, one of the top cryptocurrency exchanges.
Perpetual funding rates for both are positive, indicating a bias for long positions that benefit from price rises. Bitcoin options trading on Deribit show a bullish bias for call options across all time frames, while those tied to ether show a downside bias into March. The bias for ether puts, however, has been present since well before the hack.
Meanwhile, Volmex Finance’s 30-day bitcoin implied volatility index has dropped to an annualized 48.45%, the lowest since July, according to charting platform TradingView. Ether’s implied volatility has reversed the minor weekend spike from 67% to 70%.
The calm is a sign of market maturity, according to QCP Capital. «The price action underscores the growing maturity of the crypto landscape since the FTX collapse in 2022, particularly in the crypto credit market,» the trading firm said. «Every facet of crypto — from custodial and security solutions to corporate governance and transparency — has strengthened with each past crisis.»
Overall, the crypto community is reassured by Bybit’s ability to manage over $6 billion in withdrawals following the hack. Plus, the exchange has filled the gap in its ETH reserves.
According to Mena Theodorou, a co-founder of crypto exchange Coinstash, all eyes will be on Solana’s SOL as Franklin Templeton, one of the world’s largest asset management firms, has submitted a spot SOL ETF proposal to the SEC. In addition, 11.2 million SOL (2.3% of total supply) from the FTX estate are scheduled to be unlocked on March 1, which could breed market volatility. That has already boosted volume in SOL put options on Deribit.
President Donald Trump’s decision to audit gold reserves at Fort Knox in Kentucky has piqued interest in the crypto community. «While routine gold audits are rare, the timing is notable as Trump continues to push a pro-crypto narrative. If the gold supply turns out to be lower than expected, it could reinforce Bitcoin’s case as digital gold — and possibly even as a superior reserve asset,» Theodorou said in an email.
In traditional markets, the yen continues to gain ground against the U.S. dollar and growth-sensitive commodity currencies such as the Australian dollar, calling for caution on the part of the risk asset bulls. Stay alert
What to Watch
Crypto:
Feb. 24, 11:00 a.m.: Bugis network upgrade goes live on Enjin Relaychain mainnet.
Feb. 24: At epoch 115968, testing of Ethereum’s Pecta upgrade on the Holesky testnet starts.
Feb. 25, 9:00 a.m.: Ethereum Foundation research team AMA on Reddit.
Feb. 25: Pascal hard fork network upgrade goes live on the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) testnet.
Feb. 25: Reactive Network mainnet launch, as well as the initial creation and distribution of the REACT token.
Macro
Feb. 24, 8:00 p.m.: Bank of Korea’s (BOK) Monetary Policy Committee announces its interest rate decision.
Base Rate Est. 2.75% vs. Prev. 3%
Feb. 25, 10:00 a.m.: The Conference Board (CB) releases February’s “Consumer Confidence Index” report.
CB Consumer Confidence Est. 102.1 vs. Prev. 104.1
Feb. 25, 1:00 p.m.: Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin delivers a speech titled “Inflation Then and Now.”
Feb. 25, 7:30 p.m.: The Australian Bureau of Statistics releases January’s «Monthly Consumer Price Index Indicator» report.
Monthly CPI Indicator Est. 2.5% vs. Prev. 2.5%
Earnings
Feb. 24: Riot Platforms (RIOT), post-market, $-0.18
Feb. 25: Bitdeer Technologies Group (BTDR), pre-market, $-0.17
Feb. 25: Cipher Mining (CIFR), pre-market, $-0.09
Feb. 26: MARA Holdings (MARA), post-market, $-0.13
Feb. 26: NVIDIA (NVDA), post-market
Token Events
Governances votes & calls
Sky DAO is voting on key changes to the protocol including reducing the Smart Burn Engine’s protocol-owned liquidity to $15 million, and adjusting some parameters to enable immediate buybacks and direct all surplus to burning.
Ampleforth DAO is voting on reducing the Flash Mint fee to 0.5% and the Flash Redeem fee to 5% to increase the system’s adaptability.
DYdX DAO is discussing the establishment of a DYDX buyback program. Its initial step would allocate 25% of the dYdX’s protocol net revenue to buy back the token.
Unlocks
Feb. 28: Optimism (OP) to unlock 2.32% of circulating supply worth $35.43 million.
Mar. 1: DYdX to unlocked 1.14% of circulating supply worth $6.24 million.
Mar. 1: ZetaChain (ZETA) to unlock 6.48% of circulating supply worth $13.7 million.
Mar. 1: Sui (SUI) to unlock 0.74% of circulating supply worth $81.07 million.
Mar. 7: Kaspa (KAS) to unlock 0.63% of circulating supply worth $15.55 million.
Mar. 12: Aptos (APT) to unlock 1.93% of circulating supply worth $69.89 million.
Token Listings
Feb. 25: Zoo (ZOO) to be listed on KuCoin.
Feb. 26: Moonwell (WELL) to be listed on Kraken.
Feb. 27: Venice (VVV) to be listed on Kraken.
Feb. 28: Worldcoin (WLD) to be listed on Kraken.
Conferences:
CoinDesk’s Consensus to take place in Toronto on May 14-16. Use code DAYBOOK and save 15% on passes.
Day 2 of 8: ETHDenver 2025 (Denver)
Feb. 24: RWA London Summit 2025
Feb. 25: HederaCon 2025 (Denver)
March 2-3: Crypto Expo Europe (Bucharest, Romania)
March 8: Bitcoin Alive (Sydney, Australia)
Token Talk
By Francisco Rodrigues
The perpetrators of the near $1.5 billion hack of major crypto exchange Bybit have seemingly turned to popular Solana-based token launchpad Pump.fun to try to launder the stolen funds.
Pump.fun linked a token called “QinShinhuang (500000)” to the hacker(s) after a 60 SOL transfer and removed the token from its front end to prevent this type of activity.
Pump.fun could meanwhile soon launch its own automated market maker (AMM) in a blow to popular Solana-based decentralized exchange Raydium, which benefited from being the platform graduating Pump.fun tokens traded on.
Derivatives Positioning
SOL put options expiring this Friday on Deribit trade at a premium of 7 vol points to calls, reflecting strong downside fears.
Ether options continue to show concerns of downside risk until the end of March, with subsequent expiries reflecting a bullish positioning. BTC options are biased bullish across time frames.
BTC block flows on Deribit featured calendar spreads and a bull call spread. ETH flows included long positions in calls at strikes of $2,850 and $2,900 and a short strangle in the April expiry.
Funding rates in perpetual futures linked to the OM token remain negative, a sign of traders taking protective bearish bets as the spot price continues to hit record highs.
Market Movements:
BTC is up 0.7% from 4 p.m. ET Friday at $95,581.78 (24hrs: -0.6%)
ETH is up 1.91% at $2,679.37 (24hrs: -4.25%)
CoinDesk 20 is up 1.18% at 3,089.09 (24hrs: -3.52%)
Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is unchanged at 2.99%
BTC funding rate is at 0.0069% (7.51% annualized) on Binance
DXY is unchanged at 106.6
Gold is unchanged at $2,936.29/oz
Silver is unchanged at $32.47/oz
Nikkei 225 closed on Friday +0.26% at 38,776.94
Hang Seng closed on Monday -0.58% at 23,341.61
FTSE is up 0.1% at 8,668.07
Euro Stoxx 50 is unchanged at 5,477.70
DJIA closed Friday -1.69% at 43,428.02
S&P 500 closed -1.71% at 6,013.13
Nasdaq closed -2.2% at 19,524.01
S&P/TSX Composite Index closed -1.44% at 25,147.03
S&P 40 Latin America closed -2.89% at 2,408.55
U.S. 10-year Treasury rate is up 1 bp at 4.44%
E-mini S&P 500 futures are up 0.5% at 6,059.25
E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.38% at 21,761.75
E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are up 0.71% at 43,796.00
Bitcoin Stats:
BTC Dominance: 61.65% (24hrs: 1.3%)
Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.02801 (-4.4%)
Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 789 EH/s
Hashprice (spot): $56.53
Total Fees: 5.65 BTC / $540,507
CME Futures Open Interest: 169,620 BTC
BTC priced in gold: 32.3 oz
BTC vs gold market cap: 9.17%
Technical Analysis
SOL’s daily chart shows the cryptocurrency has dropped below its criticial 200-day simple moving average.
Plus, it has confirmed a double top breakdown with a move below the horizontal (yellow) support line.
The bearish technical setup suggests scope for continued losses toward $120, which acted as a floor last year.
A move above the lower high of $209 printed early this month would invalidate the bearish technical outlook.
Crypto Equities
MicroStrategy (MSTR): closed on Friday at $299.69 (-7.48%), up 1.21% at $303.31 in pre-market
Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $235.38 (-8.27%), up 2,02% at $240.20
Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$22.76 (-11.27%)
MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $14.66 (-8.09%), up 0.41% at $14.72
Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $10.46 (-9.83%), up 2.77% at $10.75
Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $10.80 (-8.78%), unchanged in pre-market
CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $9.24 (-8.15%), up 0.97% at $9.34
CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $20.52 (-8.76%)
Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $47.74 (-8.61%), up 0.65% at $48.05
Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $47.81 (+0.02%)
ETF Flows
Spot BTC ETFs:
Daily net flow: -$69.2 million
Cumulative net flows: $39.57 billion
Total BTC holdings ~ 1.167 million.
Spot ETH ETFs
Daily net flow: -$8.9 million
Cumulative net flows: $3.15 billion
Total ETH holdings ~ 3.808 million.
Source: Farside Investors
Overnight Flows
Chart of the Day
Daily transactions and cumulative trading volumes on Solana’s decentralized exchanges have declined markedly since the debut of the TRUMP memecoin a month ago.
While You Were Sleeping
Bybit Closes ‘ETH Gap’ as Exchange Replenishes $1.4B Hole After Hack (CoinDesk): On-chain tracking service Lookonchain Bybit received around 446,870 ETH via loans, large deposits and ether purchases over the past two days.
Solana Whales Increase Engagement in Bearish Options Plays on Deribit Amid SOL Meltdown and Impending Unlock (CoinDesk): A steep drop in the SOL price, waning Solana network activity from memecoin declines and a massive token unlock on March 1 are fueling a surge in SOL put options on Deribit.
ECB Might Have to Lower Key Rate to Level That Stimulates Economy, Wunsch Says (Financial Times): National Bank of Belgium Governor Pierre Wunsch said that if eurozone inflation cools and demand remains weak, the ECB’s key rate could drop to 2% by mid-2025.
Options Traders Line Up Hedges Before Pivotal Nvidia Earnings (Bloomberg): Despite the S&P 500 rally, traders are bracing for volatility, with surging VIX call activity hinting at caution.
Trump Hands Russian Economy a Lifeline After Three Years of War (Reuters): Russia’s persistent inflation and 21% interest rate, driven by its war in Ukraine, are partly alleviated by Trump’s push for a peace deal that has boosted the ruble to six-month highs against the dollar.
Singapore Inflation Climbs at the Slowest Rate Since February 2021 (CNBC): In January, Singapore’s headline inflation rose 1.2% year-on-year, below the 2.15% increase expected by economists polled by Reuters. Core inflation fell to 0.8%.
In the Ether
This is a daily technical analysis by CoinDesk analyst and Chartered Market Technician Omkar Godbole.
Bitcoin’s (BTC) recent range play resolved bullishly early Monday, shifting focus to the $90,000-$92,000 range, which was previously a strong support zone.
The leading cryptocurrency by market value rose past $87,000, convincingly breaking out of a week-long consolidation between $83,000 and $86,000. The renewed willingness among the bulls to lead the price action indicates the resumption of the recovery from the April 7 lows under $75,000.
It also means potential for a continued move higher to the $90,000-$92,000 range, which acted as the floor, arresting price drops from December to early February. The support zone was eventually breached in late February, spurring a rapid decline to under $75,000.
The range breakout is seen on the hourly chart (left).
It follows the recent invalidation of the bearish trendline, characterizing the sell-off from record highs, as seen on the daily chart. BTC has also surpassed the 30-day exponential moving average (EMA) of price highs, indicating a bullish shift in momentum.
The focus, therefore, is on the $90,000-$92,000 range, the former support zone from early this year. Those tracking moving averages should note that the 200-day simple moving average (SMA) is now located at $88,245.
The bullish outlook risks invalidation should prices fall all the way back to $85K by the day’s end (UTC).
Circle, the firm behind the $60 billion USDC stablecoin, is launching a new payments and cross border remittance network on Tuesday — the company’s “next product move” — from its plush New York City headquarters, high on the 87th Floor of One World Trade Center.
The launch event is aimed at banks, fintechs, payment service providers, remittance providers and USDC strategic partners. It will feature Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire sharing his vision for the stablecoin giant’s next move within the payments space, according to an invite seen by CoinDesk.
New and incipient regulations around the globe are opening up the stablecoin space, where Circle has shared the limelight with larger rival Tether. It makes sense then that Circle — a firm that has successfully pivoted during its years in the crypto space — should look to consolidate its position and return to its roots as a payments company.
“Circle is launching a payments network that is initially targeting remittances but is ultimately aiming to rival Mastercard and Visa,» said a person familiar with the plans.
Stablecoins have reached an adoption level where the technology could disrupt global money transfers in a way similar to WhatsApp and international calls, VC firm Andreessen Horowitz said in recent report.
In a recent interview, crypto custody tech specialists Fireblocks pointed to billions being moved around by payments services providers doing things like cross border payments using stablecoins like USDC and USDT.
Circle was in the news most recently, after the firm announced plans to go public in the U.S., only to postpone the date of its IPO thanks to choppy and uncertain market conditions.
Circle did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Surging gold prices and bitcoin’s (BTC) relatively strong price action amid a global market sell-off have some traders revisiting the latter’s role as “digital gold” — a big narrative in bitcoin’s early years but one that has lost steam in recent times.
BTC zoomed above $87,000 in Asian morning hours, with Cardano’s ADA, BNB Chain’s BNB, XRP and ether (ETH) adding as much as 1.5%. The spike reversed all declines since Thursday, with tokens such as Solana’s SOL up 5.2% in the past week.
The tariff-driven trade wars have sparked fears of inflation and currency devaluation, prompting comparisons of the asset to gold’s historical role as a hedge.
“Although bitcoin has had a close correlation with U.S. equities, it seems to be changing with a stronger tie to the rise of the price of gold, which has been a safe haven while equities have plummeted,” Nick Ruck, director at LVRG Research, told CoinDesk in a Telegram message on Monday.
“Bitcoin crossed $87,000 as a sign of renewed investor confidence as the market continues to stabilize after panicking over tariffs. It’s also worth noting that Bitcoin’s digital gold narrative is taking off as both assets have grown in tandem,” Ruck said.
Gold set fresh highs Monday with a push above $3,380 per ounce, bringing year-to-date gains to 25%. Bitcoin has dropped more than 20% from a January peak of $108,000, though Monday’s push over $87,000 sent the asset to its highest level since Donald Trump’s “liberation day” in early April.
Pressure on the greenback has continued to grow as the dollar index (DXY) crashed to a three-year low, with some pointing out that most bad news has been “priced in” and that bitcoin could see upside in the coming days.
“Trump’s inclination to remove Jerome Powell as Fed Chair and force interest rate cuts is causing people to sell the U.S. dollar and U.S. government debt, moving to other safe haven assets such as gold, European bonds, and now, Bitcoin,” Jeff Mei, COO at BTSE, told CoinDesk in a Telegram message Monday.
“After all, when rates are cut, more money flows into the money supply, devaluing the U.S. dollar. In general, downward pressure on the US dollar is growing and this could be a driving catalyst for Bitcoin to become a safe haven asset,” Mei added.
Meanwhile, here’s a machine’s view of the markets today, powered by the CoinDesk Markets AI bot.
ADA Price Analysis
- Cardano’s ADA is above 63 cents with strong technical indicators pointing to continued upward momentum despite macroeconomic headwinds.
- Price action formed a clear ascending channel with strong support at $0.612, which successfully held during multiple retests.
- Notable volume spike occurred on 2025-04-21 00:00 when volume reached 68M (3x average), propelling price through key resistance at $0.630.
- Fibonacci extension levels suggest 64 cents as the next target, with an overall range of 0.031 (5.1%), indicating substantial volatility.
- RSI remains below overbought territory despite the rally, suggesting potential for continued upward momentum.
- Consolidation near previous resistance suggests accumulation rather than distribution.
XRP Price Analysis
- XRP’s decisive breakout signals a potential end to months-long sideways trading, with technical indicators pointing to further gains ahead.
- Fibonacci retracement levels suggest potential continuation toward $2.15, with the 61.8% extension pointing to $2.18 as the next target if bullish momentum persists.
SOL Price Analysis
- SOL breaks decisively above $135 resistance, surging 10.2% to establish new support levels with strong volume confirmation
- Key technical battle emerges between $129 support and $144 resistance zones, with on-chain data showing 5.75% of realized volume concentrated at these critical levels
- Price action formed a clear ascending channel with higher lows and higher highs, particularly evident in the April 19-21 rally.
- Volume significantly increased during upward movements, confirming the strength of the bullish trend.
- The 48-hour momentum indicators show bullish divergence with price maintaining strength above the 20-hour moving average.
BNB Price Action
- BNB breaks $600 barrier with 3.2% surge as large holders accumulate during market volatility.
- Recent quarterly token burn removed 1.57 million BNB worth over $1 billion, supporting price momentum.
- Open interest in BNB rose 3.3% to $760 million despite negative funding rates, with 68% of traders betting on continued price increases.
- BNB broke out of its consolidation range with a 3.2% surge from $592.63 to $601.74.
- Price action shows clear bullish momentum with increasing volume, particularly during the breakout candle where volume spiked to 55,661 units.
- Fibonacci extension targets suggest potential continuation toward the $605-610 zone if current momentum persists.
Bitcoin’s Breakout Signals BTC Potentially Rallying to $90K-$92K: Technical Analysis
Stablecoin Giant Circle Is Launching a New Payments and Remittance Network
BNB, SOL, XRP Spike Higher as Bitcoin ‘Digital Gold’ Narrative Makes a Comeback
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