Bitcoin and altcoins are hit by biggest crypto hack in history
- Bitcoin holds steady above $95,000, while crypto market capitalization excluding BTC decreases to $1.18 trillion on Monday.
- Analysts note that institutional interest in Bitcoin is likely overestimated through inflow data since it includes nearly 56% of BTC tied to arbitrage strategies.
- Bybit exchange, hit by North Korea’s Lazarus Group’s $1.4 billion heist, closes the stolen Ether gap completely with full asset backing.
- Solana meme coins wiped out 12% in market cap in the last 24 hours as hacked funds were laundered through meme coins on Pump.fun.
Bitcoin (BTC) trades at $95,563 at the time of writing on Monday as crypto traders digest the largest crypto exchange hack in history. Earlier in the day, Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Bybit exchange, confirmed that the gap created by stolen funds has been filled with full asset backing and assured users of a full refund if they were affected.
Crypto market capitalization is down 3.7% on Monday, at $3.25 trillion, according to CoinGecko data. The market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies, excluding Bitcoin, is down to $1.18 trillion at the time of writing.
New developments related to the Bybit exchange hack and the laundering of stolen funds may influence trader sentiment on Monday. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index shows that sentiment is neutral. Neutral sentiment is typically considered an indicator of potential market volatility and uncertainty in the future.
Bitcoin Price Forecast: BTC struggles to test $100,000 milestone
Bitcoin is trading above the $95,000 support level on Monday. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is down 0.85% on the day, with a 24-hour trade volume that exceeds $20 billion.
BTC struggles to re-test the $100,000 milestone while Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) flows were net negative last week, suggesting decreasing institutional demand. Analysts at 10x Research observe that 56% of ETF net positive flows since January 2025 are related to arbitrage strategies and used as a hedge against Bitcoin short positions.
The report published on Sunday reads:
Although Bitcoin ETFs have attracted $38.6 billion in net inflows since their January 2024 launch, our analysis suggests that only $17.5 billion (44%) represents genuine long-only buying. The majority—56%—is likely tied to arbitrage strategies, where short Bitcoin futures positions offset inflows.”
Bitcoin trades less than 5% below its $100,000 milestone as market movers weigh heavily on its price trend. Support at $93,572 is key to Bitcoin, as a drop below this level could signal a potential shift from consolidation to a downward trend in BTC price.
BTC/USDT daily price chart | Source: TradingView
Altcoin season unlikely in the short term, BTC dominance rises
Bitcoin dominance is climbing, hitting 61.50% on Monday. A rise in BTC dominance signals that the altcoin season – a period of time when altcoins outperform Bitcoin – is likely to be delayed.
Bitcoin dominance daily chart | Source: TradingView
Altcoin season is a period when 75% of the top 50 altcoins outperform Bitcoin over a 90-day timeframe.
Traders watch out for altcoin season to rotate capital out of Bitcoin into more volatile tokens for higher gains and profits. While altcoin seasons were part of the four-year market cycle, the shift in Bitcoin dominance trend and institutional participation in crypto have changed the scenario in 2025.
The altcoin season index, an indicator used to identify whether it is altcoin season, reads 33 on a scale of 0 to 100, showing that it is not the altcoin season yet.
What’s next after the Bybit exchange hack
Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Bybit, informed traders that the Ethereum gap created by the $1.4 billion hack where North Korea’s Lazarus Group attacked the exchange’s hot wallet is now fully closed.
The exchange is gearing up to publish a new audited proof-of-reserves report to show that it is 100% back to 1:1 client assets. The exchange promised a complete refund to all affected users and assured them of the availability of funds to tackle the losses incurred.
Latest Update: Bybit has already fully closed the ETH gap, new audited POR report will be published very soon to show that Bybit is again Back to 100% 1:1 on client assets through merkle tree, Stay tuned. https://t.co/QLa1vOujM6
— Ben Zhou (@benbybit) February 24, 2025
The incident marks the biggest crypto exchange hack in history and negatively impacted the sentiment among traders. Bitcoin and altcoins are struggling to recover from the correction that ensued from the hack.
Will Solana recover from meme coin use for laundering stolen funds?
On-chain analyst and researcher @zachxbt tracked the stolen funds and observed that the Lazarus Group laundered the Ether via meme coins and cross-chain transfers. $1.08 million was routed through Solana, Binance Smart Chain and split across 30 wallets. Hackers traded scam meme coins received as dust for Solana, and over 920 addresses tied to past Lazarus Group laundering tactics participated in the process.
Lazarus Group just connected the Bybit hack to the Phemex hack directly on-chain commingling funds from the intial theft address for both incidents.
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) February 22, 2025
Overlap address:
0x33d057af74779925c4b2e720a820387cb89f8f65
Bybit hack txns on Feb 22, 2025:… pic.twitter.com/dh2oHUBCvW
While Solana-based meme coins are being used to launder the stolen funds, the category wiped out 12.5% in market capitalization in the last 24 hours, to $9.73 billion on Monday.
Solana trades at $159.16 at the time of writing, hitting a near three-month low of $155.38 earlier in the day. Technical indicators on the daily price chart support a bearish thesis and further decline is likely in SOL price.
Author
Ekta Mourya
FXStreet
Ekta Mourya has extensive experience in fundamental and on-chain analysis, particularly focused on impact of macroeconomics and central bank policies on cryptocurrencies.
