Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit said Friday (Feb. 21) that a cyberattacker stole some of its holdings.In its posts on X about the incident, the company did not say how much was taken.Bloomberg reported Friday that analysts estimate the loss to total nearly $1.5 billion worth of tokens.Rob Behnke, co-founder and executive chairman of blockchain security firm Halborn, told Bloomberg the hack was likely the “largest incident ever, not just crypto.”Bybit said in a said in a post on X that the attacker was able to transfer some of the firm’s holdings to an unidentified address after gaining control of one of Bybit’s Ethereum (ETH) cold wallets when it was executing a transfer to one of its warm wallets.Bybit detected unauthorized activity involving one of our ETH cold wallets. The incident occurred when our ETH multisig cold wallet executed a transfer to our warm wallet. Unfortunately, this transaction was manipulated through a sophisticated attack that masked the signing… — Bybit (@Bybit_Official) February 21, 2025The company’s security team is working with blockchain forensic experts to investigate the incident and trace the assets, according to the post.“We want to assure our users and partners that all other Bybit cold wallets remain fully secure,” the post said. “All client funds are safe, and our operations continue as usual without any disruption.”Later, Bybit reposted a post by Co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou that said: “Bybit is solvent even if this hack loss is not recovered, all of clients assets are 1 to 1 backed, we can cover the loss.”Bybit is Solvent even if this hack loss is not recovered, all of clients assets are 1 to 1 backed, we can cover the loss. — Ben Zhou (@benbybit) February 21, 2025Bloomberg reported that Zhou said during a livestream on X that Bybit’s withdrawals were still open and that the exchange had processed over 70% of the withdrawal requests it received after the hack.Bybit is one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, is headquartered in Dubai and is not available in the U.S., according to the report.With about $16.2 billion in assets on its exchange before being hacked, the stolen tokens amounted to about 9% of its total assets, the report said.Bloomberg reported later Friday that the prices of the two largest cryptocurrencies — bitcoin and ether — dipped as traders reacted to news of the hack at Bybit but remained within the range at which they have traded this month.This news came about a month after Bybit said its Bybit Pay solution is live in Brazil and integrates with the Brazilian Pix instant payment system, enabling users to make payments in both fiat currency and cryptocurrency.The news also came on the same day cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said that staff at the U.S

Durante las últimas horas, los mercados globales han estado bajo una presión considerable debido a una serie de eventos inesperados. Un equipo de investigadores chinos del Instituto de Virología de Wuhan identificó un nuevo tipo de coronavirus en murciélagos que presenta similitudes con el virus responsable del COVID-19. Este hallazgo, combinado con el hack de 1,5 mil millones de dólares de la plataforma de criptomonedas Bybit, ha enviado ondas de choque tanto en la bolsa de valores como en el mercado cripto.HKU5-CoV-2: Impacto en la bolsa de valoresDe a cuerdo a The Korea Times, el coronavirus, denominado HKU5-CoV-2, fue hallado en murciélagos japoneses en Hong Kong. Este agente tiene la capacidad de ingresar a las células humanas de una manera similar al SARS-CoV-2. No obstante, los investigadores fueron rápidos en señalar que este nuevo linaje parece ser mucho menos potente y su capacidad de transmisión humana es relativamente baja. Esto, aunque tranquilizador en términos de salud global, ha creado una sensación de incertidumbre entre los inversores, especialmente en un contexto económico ya frágil.La noticia del nuevo coronavirus coincidió con un periodo de baja en los mercados financieros globales

Add Franklin Templeton to the list of asset managers seeking approval for exchange-traded funds tracking the ongoing price of Solana. The issuer on Friday afternoon filed an S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a Franklin Solana ETF. “The Fund seeks to reflect generally the performance of the price of Solana,” the firm said in its filing. San Mateo, California-based Franklin follows multiple other issuing giants seeking an SEC nod for Solana-based funds. Grayscale, Bitwise, Canary, 21Shares, and VanEck have all submitted filings for ETFs based on the performance of the sixth-largest crypto by market capitalization.Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas has penciled in a 70% chance that Solana ETFs receive a green light this year, although he would not predict the timing. Issuers must still contend with regulatory review, ongoing enforcement actions, and public comment on the filings. Solana’s price dipSolana was recently trading at about $168, down slightly over the past 24 hours, according to crypto markets data provider CoinGecko. The token of the smart contracts blockchain has dropped more than 16% over the past week following its association with a scandal involving the Libra token, and wider slowing of meme coin projects that have favored the network. Still, investor demand for crypto-focused assets remains strong, the continuing after-effects of spot Bitcoin funds’ dramatic success. The 11 Bitcoin funds have accumulated more than $40 billion in net inflows over the past year, ushering in the subsequent approval of ETFs tracking the price of Ethereum last July.On Thursday, the issuer debuted the Templeton Crypto Index ETF (EZPZ) to track price movements for the two top cryptocurrencies by market value based on CF Benchmark’s Institutional Digital Asset Index.The Franklin Bitcoin ETF’s (EZBC) $442 million in net inflows ranks just eighth among the Bitcoin funds, according to UK-based asset manager Farside Investors. The Franklin Ethereum ETF (EZET)  has $34 million in AUM to rank sixth among eight funds in that group.“This move reflects a growing interest among asset managers to offer investment products beyond Bitcoin, especially as regulatory conditions become more favorable,” Joe DiPasquale, CEO of crypto fund manager BitBull Capital, told Decrypt