Santiment’s social sentiment tracker found that traders’ discussions on various social media channels like X, Reddit and Telegram between Feb. 25 and 26 are “showing a very high level of confidence” that this dip is the “the one to buy,’” the platform said in a Feb. 28 post to X.

It’s the highest level of crypto dip-buying interest in seven months, it added. 

Bitcoin dropped below $90,000 on Feb. 25, a day after US President Donald Trump announced his planned 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico are going forward.

The price has since shed even more of the gains made post-US election, dropping below $80,000 on Feb. 28, after Trump threatened a further 10% tariff on China, and amid other macroeconomic uncertainty. 

However, the analytics platform says the high interest in buying the dip isn’t necessarily a signal to jump into the market because it can often move in the opposite direction of expectations.

“Ideally, we are waiting for this crowd enthusiasm to die down as a signal that enough pain has hit retail traders to justify a bounce,” Santiment said.

“Markets move in the opposite direction of the crowd’s expectations, so look for declining optimism and shrinking levels of buy-the-dip calls as a bullish signal.”

Related: Crypto market is seeing a ‘tactical retreat, not a reversal’ — Binance CEO

Santiment’s tracker sifts through crypto-specific social media channels such as X and Telegram for the top 10 words that have seen the most significant increase in social media mentions compared to the previous two weeks, according to its methodology.

Bitcoin (BTC) has retreated over 21% in the past 30 days and is down 5% in the last 24 hours, trading at around $80,400, according to CoinMarketCap data. Ether (ETH) is down over 30% in the past 30 days and has fallen 7.54% in the last day, trading at around $2,139. 

In a follow-up post, Santiment said it is unsurprising prices are falling even further after the “retail crowd was all over the prospects of a dip buy.”

“Look for the crowd becoming disinterested or despondent as a sign that the real dip buy opportunity has arrived,” the platform said. 

Google Trends data shows a similar narrative playing out as search interest in “buy the dip” spiked to 100 on Feb. 26 when looking over a one-week timeframe. However, search interest has since dropped to a score of 49 out of 100.

Meanwhile, searches for the term “crypto” hit its highest level of 100 in the last seven days on Feb. 25 and is currently sitting at 87 out of 100.

A value of 100 is classed as peak popularity for the term, according to the Google Trends FAQ, while a score of 0 means there was relatively low volume for the term on that day. 

Magazine: Elon Musk’s plan to run government on blockchain faces uphill battle

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The 30-day ETH futures are now trading at a 7% premium over the spot market, up slightly from 6% two days ago. Premiums between 5% and 10% are considered neutral, as traders typically expect higher returns for the longer settlement period. This shift indicates weaker bearish pressure below $2,600, which could boost confidence among bullish investors.

Weak macroeconomic conditions deter ETH price recovery

The journey for ETH to hit $2,800 again might take weeks or months, but data suggests the lowest price point is likely in the past. Still, the recovery speed depends on investor caution, with recent US unemployment and inflation figures raising concerns.

US jobless claims for the week ending Feb. 22 reached a seasonally adjusted 242,000, the highest in three months. Also, US pending home sales in January fell to a record low, down 4.6% from the prior month, per the National Association of Realtors. Economists surveyed by Reuters, as reported by Yahoo Finance, had predicted a smaller drop of 1.3%.

Investors are increasingly anxious about new import tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump, targeting goods from China, Canada, and Mexico. Trump also threatened a 25% tariff on imports from the European Union, prompting the EU to promise a firm and swift response to unfair trade restrictions, according to CNBC. 

Nvidia’s shares fell 3.3% on Feb. 27, despite exceeding quarterly earnings forecasts and providing strong guidance for Q1 2025, reflecting investor nervousness. Meanwhile, gold prices dropped 2.2% in two days, sliding to a two-week low of $2,870, highlighting broader market concerns impacting even safe-haven assets.

Ether options markets display resilience despite the price crash

Currently, the ETH options skew is at -2%, sitting comfortably within the neutral range of -6% to 6%. This suggests resilience among whales and market makers, especially notable since ETH’s price fell 20%. Despite the drop, there’s no significant rush to buy put options, indicating confidence in the market.

Current market conditions resemble Feb. 3, when ETH’s price plummeted 38% in under three days, falling from $3,437 to $2,124. Back then, the ETH delta skew metric stayed near zero, reflecting solid market confidence. Ether quickly recovered to $2,750 within a day and held the $2,550 support level for the following two weeks. 

Related: Nvidia revenues up 80% from ‘amazing’ demand for AI chips

Ether’s path to $2,800 remains achievable as its key competitor, Solana, faces declining momentum in the memecoin sector. Meanwhile, Ethereum maintains its dominance in total value locked (TVL), driven by strong demand for liquid staking, lending, yield aggregators, and automated onchain liquidity protocols.

The pace of ETH’s price recovery largely depends on Ethereum delivering its planned upgrades and fostering incentives for projects to develop their own layer-2 solutions. This, in turn, enhances the base layer’s utility and strengthens staking rewards, creating a clear path for ETH price recovery.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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According to Cyvers, other flagged addresses had received about $4 million in cryptocurrencies, primarily in Ether (ETH)-linked tokens.

The digital assets suspected to have been stolen included 113 ETH, valued at over $265,000 at the time of writing, 923 WETH, 301 ezETH, 156 weETH, 90 pufET, 48,400 MASK, 50,000 USDt (USDT) and 15 swETH.

Following the initial compromise, the funds were then swapped to ETH and funneled through six different wallet addresses, with one of the offending wallets ending in “df7.” Meir Dolev, co-founder of Cyvers, told Cointelegraph:

“This incident underscores the increasing sophistication of threat actors in the Web3 space and highlights the urgent need for real-time transaction monitoring, preemptive prevention and rapid incident response.”

This incident is the latest in a string of recent high-profile hacks and exploits, including the $1.4 billion Bybit hack on Feb. 21 and the Pump.fun social media hack on Feb. 26.

Related: From Sony to Bybit: How Lazarus Group became crypto’s supervillain

Crypto industry rocked by sophisticated hacking techniques

Forensic investigations into the recent Bybit hack show the exploit occurred due to the compromised credentials of a SafeWallet developer and targeted the Bybit team.

According to a statement released by the Safe team, the exploit did not affect any of the code for its front-end services or its smart contracts.

Instead, the hackers used the compromised system to attack the user interface — sending seemingly legitimate transactions to Bybit and then diverting the funds from the malicious transactions to a different hardware wallet.

However, Martin Köppelmann, the co-founder of the Gnosis blockchain network, which developed and spun off Safe, said that he could only speculate how the hackers used the exploit to trick multiple signers from the Bybit team.

The crypto executive added that the Lazarus Group, strongly believed to be behind the attack, likely avoided attacking other accounts using Safe products to avoid detection and giving away their tactics.

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Bybit CEO Ben Zhou stated that the transaction was deliberately masked to appear legitimate but contained malicious source code that modified the wallet’s smart contract logic to siphon funds. Historically, Lazarus — the North Korean state-affiliated group reportedly behind the attack — does not rush to liquidate stolen assets, as those wallets are closely tracked and blacklisted by most centralized platforms.

Regardless of the hacker’s intent for the stolen ETH, analysts noted that significant buying pressure was inevitable, as no over-the-counter (OTC) desk or exchange had the liquidity to absorb such an amount. In theory, the combined 2% order book depth for ETH across the top 10 exchanges totals around $52 million, making a $700 million market buy a challenging task.

Vance Spencer, co-founder of crypto venture capital firm Framework Ventures, noted that the bridge loans provided to Bybit are temporary, meaning over 400,000 ETH would eventually need to be bought on the open market. This sentiment was echoed by Lewi, a contributor at Perennial Labs, who anticipated a short squeeze that could drive Ether’s price higher.

Data suggests ETH traders closed their leveraged positions

Ether’s price gained 6.7% between Feb. 21 and Feb. 23, briefly retesting the $2,850 resistance level. However, the entire $190 gain was erased on Feb. 24 as ETH dropped to $2,650. Notably, the decline coincided with reports that Bybit had already recovered over 50% of the stolen Ether and accelerated after the exchange confirmed that the position had been fully closed.

A possible reason for Ether’s underperformance was traders who had expected Bybit to aggressively buy ETH on the open market were forced to unwind their positions once it became clear this assumption was incorrect. Most transactions occurred through OTC desks, which seemingly provided sufficient liquidity to absorb the demand.

Ether futures open interest dropped to 8.52 million ETH on Feb. 24 from 8.82 million ETH the previous day. This data suggests that traders closed leveraged positions, despite forced liquidations being relatively small at $34 million. This aligns with expectations, as a 6.7% price move would require 15x leverage to fully wipe out a margin deposit.

Related: In pictures: Bybit’s record-breaking $1.4B hack

Bybit hack highlights risks of Ethereum multisig setups

The Bybit hack itself triggered a significant shift in investor sentiment toward the Ethereum ecosystem, highlighting risks associated with complex multisig setups using the Ethereum Virtual Machine. The incident underscored the unnecessary complexity and lack of robust defense mechanisms compared to simple hardware wallets, revealing that even institutions managing tens of billions of dollars remain vulnerable to such failures.

Another concern for Ether holders is the low 2.4% adjusted native staking yield, especially as ETH supply growth has reached 0.6% inflation. For comparison, Solana’s SOL (SOL) adjusted native staking yield stands at 4%. Previously, analysts were optimistic about the potential inclusion of staking in US spot Ether exchange-traded funds, currently under review by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ultimately, Ether’s price decline stems not only from the Bybit hack but also from excessive optimism among leveraged traders and expectations surrounding the potential integration of staking in US spot ETFs.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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With the Solana ecosystem and (SOL) token taking the brunt of bearish pressure over the past few weeks, one analyst believes that the bullish momentum may swing in Ether’s favor once the dust settles, leading to new all-time highs in a couple of months.

Ethereum’s risk-reward is excellent, says analyst

Doctor Profit, an anonymous crypto analyst, released a detailed Ethereum report on X, citing multiple patterns, the psychological state of the market and potential ETH returns over the next few months.

Based on a historically accurate technical indicator, the analyst said he was “insanely bullish” on the altcoin since ETH was only 18% above the 200-week EMA level. The trader explained that the price consistently bounced off this indicator in 2020 and laid out the bottom range during the 2022 bear market, adding,

“The risk-reward here is outstanding! The potential move towards 8-10k is approx 200%, while the potential worst case is only 20%. Risk reward ratio: Excellent.”

Besides the indicator, the analyst also presented two high-time frame (HTF) setups which included the multiple-year ascending channel and the ascending triangle pattern.

Doctor Profit outlined that most liquidity remains above $4,000. Forming a bullish confluence with the above patterns, the market markers are expected to push Ether toward the liquidity cluster to establish a breakout.

Overall, while the upside remains about 200% from the current price, the drawdown is at most 20% from current prices.

Meanwhile, data from Glassnode pointed to ETH’s cost-basis distribution, indicating the increased accumulation activity of investors around support at $2,632, where 786,000 ETH has been bought. Yet, it is also important to note that a higher accumulation cluster is present at $3,150 with 1.22 million ETH. Drawing a possible inference, the data platform stated,

“This trend suggests that investors are averaging down, accumulating ETH at lower prices rather than completely exiting positions.”

Related: Bitcoin daily transfer volume drops 76%, but $160B net capital rise is bullish — Analyst

Will Ethereum outperform Bitcoin in the short term?

The recent Bybit ETH hack was expected to rattle ETH’s market structure, but the altcoin has somewhat held its own in the market. Analyst ‘crypto sun-moon,’ a verified onchain analyst on CryptoQuant, Ethereum’s taker buy-sell ratio is rising, while BTC’s is currently declining.

The taker buy-sell ratio highlights the volume of buy orders with respect to sell orders, and a rising metric indicates strong buying pressure. Historically, such a change in dynamic has allowed Ether to gain more bullish momentum against Bitcoin in the short term.

From a technical perspective, Ether might appear a little better than Bitcoin. However, it is still down 6% on Feb. 24, its largest daily drawdown since Feb. 2. With a bearish engulfing pattern forming at the moment, Ether must maintain a daily close above $2,600. Otherwise, the market sentiment may flip bearish with the altcoin as well.

Related: Why is the crypto market down today?

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

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In an interview with Cointelegraph, Optimism’s chief growth officer, Ryan Wyatt, said that Superchain now accounts for 60% of Ethereum layer-2 transactions. It’s on track to reach 80% by the end of the year. 

In actual numbers, Superchain currently has more than $4 billion in total value locked and sees 11.5 million daily transactions, Wyatt said. 

Superchain is a collective of layer-2s that are using Optimism’s OP Stack to scale the Ethereum network. So far, companies such as Coinbase, Kraken, Sony, Uniswap and Sam Altman’s World have joined the collective.

“Every chain in the Superchain helps create a flywheel effect by contributing revenue back to the Optimism Collective, participating in governance, and supporting core development of the OP Stack,” said Wyatt.

Beyond just OP Stack developers, Ethereum layer-2s have seen significant growth over the past year. The total value secured across all Ethereum L2s peaked at around $55.5 billion in December, according to industry data. 

L2s are likely to see even bigger growth once interoperability upgrades are implemented. For MetaMask developer Consensys, solving this so-called interoperability puzzle is a key priority. The company’s research director, Mallesh Pai, told Cointelegraph Magazine that crosschain swaps on L2s will be implemented this year. 

Related: Ethereum devs and L2 leaders go all in on based and native rollups

L2s and DeFi

While much has been written about Ethereum’s performance since the Merge — the price of Ether (ETH) has declined roughly 70% against Bitcoin (BTC) over that period — the network remains a dominant hub for decentralized finance. This dominant position is also being shaped by L2s, which are helping scale the network’s DeFi capabilities. 

“In the Ethereum ecosystem, we expect DeFi activities to continue moving into L2s,” said DeFi educator Finematics. “These new networks will continue to play a pivotal role, enhancing Ethereum’s capabilities and allowing for greater transaction throughput.”

Related: Has Ethereum lost its edge? Experts weigh in

Layer-2s are sucking up a greater share of stablecoins, which remain one of DeFi’s biggest use cases. 

By December, Ethereum layer-2s held $13.5 billion worth of stablecoins, according to data from Tie Terminal. This was significantly higher than the value of stablecoins held on BNB Smart Chain, Solana and Avalanche, according to Web3 data analyst Matthias Seidl.

The overall stablecoin market now exceeds $226 billion, according to Tie Terminal data. 

Magazine: MegaETH launch could save Ethereum… but at what cost?

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Bybit was exploited on Feb. 21 in what has been reported as one of the largest cryptocurrency hacks in history, allegedly orchestrated by North Korea’s Lazarus Group. Despite the attack, Bybit replenished the stolen crypto assets and maintained operations without major disruption.

As part of its recovery effort, Bybit borrowed 40,000 Ether (ETH) worth about $104 million, from Bitget “as a loan to handle customer withdrawals,” Lookonchain reported on Feb. 22. 

Regaining investor trust with loan repayment

On Feb. 25, onchain data confirmed that Bybit had returned the borrowed 40,000 ETH to Bitget. The repayment was later verified by Bitget CEO Gracy Chen, who emphasized that the loan was extended without interest or collateral:

“No interest, no collateral—this was simply about supporting a peer in need. Great to see Bybit fully recovered, and we never doubted the return of the loan.”

Related: Bybit stolen funds likely headed to crypto mixers next: Elliptic

Bybit’s efforts to restore its reserves were significant, with the exchange receiving about 446,870 ETH — worth around $1.23 billion — through a combination of loans, whale deposits and asset purchases, according to Lookonchain. This accounted for almost 88% of the $1.4 billion in stolen funds.

Bybit borrowed to ensure that customers could withdraw funds at their convenience. Amid uncertainties, investors withdrew more than $5 billion on Feb. 22. 

Proof-of-reserve auditor Hacken said the crypto platform’s reserves still exceed its liabilities and user funds remain fully backed.

According to CoinGecko data, ETH fell over 7% in seven hours following the hack, dropping from $2,831 to $2,629, and traded at $2,473 at the time of writing.

Tracking down the biggest hack in crypto

Crypto investigator ZachXBT linked the Bybit exploit to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, earning a 50,000 Arkham (ARKM) tokens bounty for his findings. Further analysis suggested potential connections between the Bybit attack and past hacks on BingX and Phemex.

While investigations continue, security analysts suspect the stolen funds may be funneled through cryptocurrency mixing services, a tactic commonly used by the Lazarus Group to obscure transaction trails.

Magazine: ETH whale’s wild $6.8M ‘mind control’ claims, Bitcoin power thefts: Asia Express

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The move follows the Feb. 21 Bybit hack, the largest crypto exchange breach in history. Blockchain investigators, analytics firms, crypto exchanges and network protocols have since worked together trying to trace and recover the stolen funds.

The protocol announced the “1.7.10” upgrade on Feb. 24, stating that it aims to block illicit transactions and protect liquidity providers from exposure to stolen funds.

In its announcement, Chainflip said that the flow of illicit funds through the protocol exposes liquidity providers to risk, which could compromise the protection of general users.

“That is why we acted quickly to cut off access to the main interface after flows from the Bybit hack were spotted on Saturday morning.”

Working together to reduce crime in crypto

Chainlink also worked with its providers to ensure that Bybit funds are not siphoned through its decentralized crosschain services. However, the latest upgrade is expected to go live by or before Feb. 27, following internal testing of the code and network deployment.

“1.7.10 (the latest upgrade) includes an upgrade to the existing broker-level screening tools available to all broker operators.”

Related: Bybit hacker swaps $3.64M to DAI via decentralized exchanges

The tool will allow operators to block incoming Bitcoin (BTC) transfers based on risk profiling. 

“Rejected deposits are sent back directly to the refund address specified by the user. This feature is now being extended to Ethereum and all ERC-20 tokens.”

As a result of the upcoming upgrade, any crypto wallets linked to the Bybit hack or any other prominent security incident will be unable to use Chainflip services. Additionally, the protocol plans to introduce more features based on the need for user protection.

Chainflip targets all hack-linked wallets

Hinting at proactive measures being taken across the crypto ecosystem after the Bybit hack, Chainflip said:

“We do not need regulators to tell us what to do in this situation. There are sufficient commercial reasons for the ecosystem to take these steps, not just ethical ones.”

On an end note, Chainflip advised Lazarus Groups, a.k.a. Bybit hackers, to “Take your stolen money elsewhere – we don’t want it.”

Magazine: ETH whale’s wild $6.8M ‘mind control’ claims, Bitcoin power thefts: Asia Express

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Crypto investor sentiment was hit by the largest hack in crypto history on Feb. 21, when Bybit lost over $1.4 billion in liquid-staked Ether (stETH), Mantle Staked ETH (mETH) and other digital assets.

Onchain data shows that the hacker has moved 45,900 Ether (ETH) — worth about $113 million — in the past 24 hours, bringing the total amount laundered to more than 135,000 ETH, valued at $335 million.

That leaves the hacker with about 363,900 ETH, worth around $900 million, according to pseudonymous blockchain analyst EmberCN.

“There are still 363,900 ETH ($900 million) in the Bybit hacker address. At the current rate, it will only take another 8 to 10 days to clean it up.”

Blockchain security firms, including Arkham Intelligence, have identified North Korea’s Lazarus Group as the likely culprit behind the Bybit exploit.

On Feb. 25, four days after the exploit, Bybit co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou declared “war” on the Lazarus Group.

Meanwhile, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has flagged 11,084 cryptocurrency wallet addresses suspected of being linked to the Bybit exploit. That list is expected to grow as investigations continue.

Related: Bitcoin tumbles under $90K amid ETF sell-off, mounting liquidations

Bybit’s response could restore trust in centralized exchanges

Despite the scale of the attack, Bybit’s response may help rebuild trust in centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEXs), according to industry figures.

Dan Hughes, founder of the decentralized finance platform Radix, said Bybit’s immediate response prevented a larger market sell-off:

“Assuming the worst is behind us, the manner in which Bybit handled the situation may actually recover some confidence in CEXs. It would demonstrate that with adults at the wheel, centralized exchanges can be ‘trustworthy’ and responsible custodians of our assets.”

“Primarily, it matters most if Bybit can indeed absorb that loss as claimed. So far, withdrawals have been honored, and all seems good,” Hughes added.

Related: Bybit hackers may be behind Solana memecoin scams — ZachXBT

Bybit has continued to honor customer withdrawals and had fully replaced the stolen $1.4 billion in Ether by Feb. 24, just three days after the attack.

Still, the Bybit hack alone accounts for more than half of the $2.3 billion stolen in crypto-related hacks in 2024, marking a significant setback for the industry.

Magazine: China’s ‘point running’ crypto scams, pig butchers kidnap kids: Asia Express

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The Ethereum Foundation (EF) donated $1.25 million to support the legal defense of Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev, who is preparing to appeal his money laundering conviction in the Netherlands.

“Privacy is normal, and writing code is not a crime,” the EF wrote in an X post while announcing the donation on Feb. 26.

Pertsev subsequently took to X to repost the EF’s announcement, expressing gratitude for the donation to his legal defense.

“I’m very grateful that I can now completely focus on preparing my appeal. This means the world to me,” he said.

His attorney, Judith De Boer, emphasized the broader implications of the appeal in a statement to Cointelegraph:

“This support highlights the importance of the legal ramifications of this case. It is not just about my client — it is about the rights of open-source contributors and ensuring that privacy-preserving technologies are not unfairly criminalized. This appeal creates a second chance to turn  the precedent created by the court in first instance.”

Pertsev left prison custody in early February

The donation came weeks after Pertsev left prison custody in early February as part of the pretrial release.

The release marked a significant development in the ongoing legal battle over Pertsev’s role at Tornado Cash after he was arrested by Dutch authorities in August 2022.

A Russian national and resident of the Netherlands, Pertsev was found guilty of money laundering by a Dutch court in May 2024 and sentenced to five years and four months in prison.

In addition to Pertsev’s ongoing legal action in the Netherlands, global authorities, including the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, sanctioned Tornado Cash in August 2022. The agency overturned the sanctions the day after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president on Jan. 20.

Previous support from the community

The latest donation by the Ethereum Foundation isn’t the first time Pertsev received financial support from the Ethereum community.

In December 2024, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin donated 50 Ether (ETH)  — or roughly $170,000 at the time — to support legal aid for Pertsev and Roman Storm, another Tornado Cash developer who’s preparing for a trial in the US on April 14.

“I would like to thank everyone, especially Vitalik Buterin and Stefan George for your incredible generosity to my defense. Your support inspires me to move forward and I’m forever grateful,” Pertsev wrote at the time.

Crypto investment firm Paradigm also announced in January a $1.25 million donation to help fund Storm’s legal defense.

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