Latest Developments in Crypto: Here’s What Happened

The digital asset market has recorded slight volatility in the last 24 hours, but the industry is far from being boring.

Over the past 24-48 hours, it witnessed some significant developments and interesting events that might set the stage for future price swings. 

Lazarus Becomes a $1 Billion BTC Whale

For starters, we will shift attention to North Korea, where the notorious hacking collective known as The Lazarus Group has increased its holdings to 13,518 BTC (worth over $1.1 billion per Arkham Intelligence’s data). 

According to BitBO, this would make North Korea the fifth-largest nation-state to hold the cryptocurrency, trailing behind the US, China, the UK, and Ukraine. 

The Lazarus Group orchestrated the largest cryptocurrency heist to date by stealing around $1.5 billion in Ethereum (ETH) from Bybit last month. Arkham Intelligence showed that the entity had converted much of the embezzled stash into BTC. 

In addition to its bitcoin holdings, the hackers also possess 13,702 ETH worth approximately $26 million, BNB worth $3 million, $2.2 million in DAI, and other stablecoins and wrapped crypto assets.

South Korea’s Central Bank Says ‘No’ to BTC

North Korea’s southern neighbor also made the headlines. The Central Bank of South Korea has expressed caution regarding the inclusion of BTC in its foreign currency reserve.

The primary reason for this stance is the asset’s high volatility. The institution noted that in times of cryptocurrency market instability, the costs of converting BTC into cash could rise significantly, posing a substantial risk to the reserve.

Additionally, the bank highlighted that bitcoin does not meet the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) standards for managing foreign currency reserves, which require assets to be liquid, stable in the market, and have an investment-grade credit rating.

TON Soars After the Latest News Surrounding Pavel Durov

While BTC and many other well-known cryptocurrencies have been struggling to chart any gains lately, this was not the case with Toncoin (TON).

The asset’s price jumped by double digits over the weekend following the TON Foundation’s announcement that the French authorities have returned Pavel Durov’s passport, allowing him to leave the country “at his discretion.”

Recall that Telegram’s founder was detained last summer over allegations that he had committed some offenses through the application he runs. Somewhat expected, his arrest negatively affected TON, whose price has still not recovered from the major crash.

The Trader Walking on a Razer’s Edge

Lastly, we will touch upon the actions of one industry participant who stunned the community with his risky maneuvers. At one point this weekend, crypto X started buzzing with information that a major investor had opened a short BTC position on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid with 40x leverage worth approximately $350 million. This meant that the valuation only needed to rise by 2.5% for the trader to get liquidated. 

Some members of the crypto community noted that and started opening long positions to push the price up and liquidate the aforementioned investor. One prominent person who expressed interest in participating was Tron’s founder, Justin Sun. 

As long positions piled up, BTC climbed above $85,000, but the trader continued adding margin, raising their entry price and simultaneously increasing the liquidation price. For better or worse, the crowd failed to liquidate the investor and eventually gave up, which ironically helped the short position even more, now estimated to be around $450 million.