Bybit Hacking Losses

Bitcoin prices remain in shaky territory on Monday morning following the hacking scandal which rocked crypto markets late last week. Hackers carried out the largest ever crypto heist on Friday, stealing $1.5 billion from crypto exchange Bybit. The theft sparked massive outflows with the exchange seeing almost $6 billion in capital leaving the platform as news of the theft broke. While CEO Ben Zhou quickly reassured investors that it could comfortably cover the loss, outflows continued through the weekend.

Retail Traders Spooked

The crypto market has occasionally been hit by similar events, though not of this scale before, which often leads to a drop in prices as retail traders exit positions and leave the market. Zhou and his team said they are working hard to understand how the theft took place, to prevent any similar attacks in the future, and have reduced some functionality on the platform for the time-being.

Institutional Signals

Despite the news and the kneejerk selling in Bitcoin, prices have stabilised for now with the futures market gapping slightly higher at the open this week. Interestingly, Strategy’s Michael Saylor was seen posting a chart on X last night suggesting that the fund will resume its Bitcoin buying following a one-week lapse. Additional news that BlackRock has filed to increase its stake in Strategy can be seen as a further vote of confidence in BTC.

Technical Views

BTCUSD

BTC prices suffered a hard rejection at the latest test of the $100k mark. However, price remains above the $91,750 level and the bull channel lows, keeping the focus on an eventual rotation higher. $100k remains the key near-term pivot with the $107,855 highs on watch above there. Only a break of current support will alter the broader bull view.