Kategorie: Crypto Markets

• ZachXBT has blasted the “Hyperliquid 50x leverage whale” as “a cybercriminal gambling with stolen funds.”
• The whale netted a $9 million profit despite efforts by crypto traders to liquidate the position.
• ZachXBT has previously unmasked bad actors and identified hackers, including those behind the Bybit hack in February 2025

On-chain investigator ZachXBT says the “Hyperliquid 50x leverage whale” that has attracted massive attention across X is “just a cybercriminal gambling with stolen funds.”

The on-chain sleuth’s comment came as the whale closed their high-leverage trading position, 50x, with a notable $9 million profit.

Despite efforts by crypto Twitter to marshal a liquidation for the Hyperliquid whale, the trader emerged unscathed – yet again.

Hyperliquid 50x whale a criminal – ZachXBT says

ZachXBT commented on this, revealing who the whale is and is not. He shared the investigative view via X:

“It’s funny watching CT speculate on the “Hyperliquid whale” when in reality it’s just a cybercriminal gambling with stolen funds.”

Replying to a user comment, ZachXBT noted that the criminal whale has no links to the North Korea-backed Lazarus Group. In February this year, the blockchain sleuth linked the $1.5 billion Bybit hack to the hacker group.

Some X users asked that ZachXBT names and shames the Hyperliquid whale. However, his response was:

“We’ll see, it’s just not enjoyable posting investigations on X/Twitter anymore.”

Crypto ‘hunted’ for the mysterious whale

For weeks, the crypto market has speculated on who the mysterious Hyperliquid whale may be. A hunt for their identity and efforts to drag them down surfaced.

This hunt for the trader who opened a short position worth about $450 million on Bitcoin (BTC) intensified on Tuesday.

Amid the rush to liquidate him, analysts pointed to the whale’s 40x and 50x shorting of BTC and ETH as massive. The reaction had most traders looking to wreck the whale’s position with a flurry of buying deals. In fact, according to Lookonchain, the whale had to deposit $5 million USDC “to increase margin and avoid liquidation.”

But the effort to wreck the whale ultimately failed.

This whale has closed all his positions and made a profit of $9.46M in just 8 days.https://t.co/EtI4kinRNE pic.twitter.com/TPxf6MIIqR

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) March 18, 2025

As well as th 50x short leveraged position on Ethereum (ETH), this whale also shorted Chainlink (LINK), opening a huge $31 million position with 10x leverage. The whale has also placed short bids on GMX.

While ZachXBT clarified this whale isn’t tied to North Korea, the incident highlights the challenge the crypto community faces amid bad actor incidents.

The issue of stolen funds making it back into circulation via decentralized finance protocols remains. It also points to the overall impact of massive leverage on the market, particularly when criminals tap into high-leverage trades to gamble stolen funds.

Although this particular whale’s identity may interest the broader ecosystem, the big question going forward is how does crypto reign in this potentially impactful scenario.

The post Hyperliquid 50x leverage whale is cybercriminal gambling stolen funds: ZachXBT appeared first on CoinJournal.

• A March 27 meeting is being considered for a committee hearing on the selection of incoming SEC chair Paul Atkins
• US President Donald Trump selected Atkins in December following his presidential election win
• Atkins previously served as an SEC Commissioner from 2002 and 2008 under former President George W. Bush

The confirmation of Paul Atkins as the next US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair is being delayed due to the submission of paperwork.

That’s according to Eleanor Mueller, Semafor’s Congress reporter, who posted on X. She wrote:

“Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott is eyeing March 27 for a committee hearing on Trump’s nominee to chair the SEC, Paul Atkins, I’m told. As I wrote earlier this month, the committee has been waiting for the White House to send over his paperwork.”

Scooplet: Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott is eyeing March 27 for a committee hearing on Trump’s nominee to chair the SEC, Paul Atkins, I’m told.

As I wrote earlier this month, the committee has been waiting for the White House to send over his paperwork: https://t.co/2sDebKDIAI

— Eleanor Mueller (@Eleanor_Mueller) March 17, 2025

US President Donald Trump selected Atkins to be the next SEC chair in December. This is a significant selection for Trump, as Atkins is considered a pro-crypto figure in the industry. During his election, Trump promised to reshape the regulatory landscape for digital finance and clarify cryptocurrency rules.

Mueller continued that the Senate banking committee is also planning to hold a bipartisan meeting on  Friday, March 21, to discuss Atkins’ nomination.

Financial disclosure

This latest development follows from a March 3 report from Semafor. In it, Mueller detailed how the White House hadn’t produced the required paperwork to schedule a confirmation hearing for Atkins. This also included his financial disclosure given the fact that he married into a billionaire family.

In 1990, Atkins married Sarah Humphreys Atkins, whose family is linked to Tamko Building Products, a company that manufactures roofing shingles in the US. Last year, it made $1.2 billion in revenue, according to a December report from Forbes.

One former Senate Banking Committee member said: “It’s a lot to go through. But he got named so early on, so I think that’s why people are starting to be like, ‘What the hell’s taking so long?”

Atkins previously served as an SEC Commissioner between 2002 and 2008 under former President George W. Bush.

While the agency awaits the confirmation of Atkins, Mark Uyeda is the acting chair. In January, Uyeda created a new crypto task force designed to establish a clear regulatory framework for the industry.

The post Paul Atkins SEC chair confirmation faces delay with Senate due to paperwork issues appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Ethena Labs and Securitize are joining forces to launch Converge, a new blockchain for decentralized finance and tokenized assets.
• Converge will be Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible and serve both retail and institutional DeFi.
• ENA price rose 5% to change hands above $0.38 following the announcement

Ethena Labs and Securitize are teaming up on a venture that will see the crypto projects unveil Converge, a new blockchain built for tokenized assets and decentralized finance.

Announced on Mar. 17, Converge will be a custom-built, Ethereum-compatible blockchain. The developers envision a platform that will cater to both everyday investors and deep-pocketed institutional players.

Per a blog post introducing the new blockchain, the anticipated launch date is Q2 2025.

Ethena, Securitize unveil Converge

According to Ethena Labs, Converge is a blockchain platform designed to bridge the gap between traditional finance and DeFi.

The technology behind the EVM-compatible chain will allow users to leverage user-friendly decentralized applications for retail investors. Converge will also offer a suite of top tools aimed at institutional investors.

Both Ethena Labs and Securitize plan to tap into the new blockchain to advance the DeFi and asset tokenization ecosystem. In this case, the partnership will see Ethena bring its burgeoning DeFi to Converge.

Securitize will also revamp its traction in the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization space. With nearly $2 billion minted, Securitize stands out as one of the top platforms championing the growth of tokenized assets.

Converge’s unveiling will bring an EVM-compatible settlement layer, driving new adoption for stablecoins and tokenized assets.

“We’re developing Converge to fill a clear gap in the market as the go-to settlement layer for institutional-grade DeFi and tokenized assets,” Guy Young, founder of Ethena Labs, said in a statement.

According to Young, “storage and settlement of stablecoins and tokenized assets” is set to be a massive opportunity in the coming years.

Stablecoins, blockchains and exchanges are a “holy trinity of crypto protocols” the Ethena Labs founder posted on X.

Further comments came from Carlos Domingo, the co-founder and CEO of Securitize. He noted:

“By combining Ethena’s innovation in DeFi with Securitize’s leadership in tokenizing real-world assets, Converge sets a new standard for how institutions can confidently engage with on-chain financial markets.”

Converge’s initial launch partners

The two firms will look to advance Converge via key industry collaborations. Helping the cause are initial launch partners, including Pendle, Aave Labs (via its Horizon project), Morpho, Ethereal and Maple Finance.

Converge’s RWA traction will also benefit from custodial support from Anchorage, Copper, Fireblocks and Zodia among other institutional-grade custody providers.

Also key will be interoperability partners LayerZero and Wormhole. Meanwhile, Converge will tap into oracle support from Pyth Network and RedStone.

Furthermore, Converge will use Ethena’s native governance token ENA for staking and security. The latter will tap into a permissioned validator set. The USDe and USTb stablecoins will power network transactions as gas tokens.

The news saw the ENA token jump more than 5% to trade above $0.38.

The post Ethena Labs and Securitize to launch Converge, a new blockchain for DeFi appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Canary Capital’s Sui exchange-traded fund (ETF) has been acknowledged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
• The crypto fund manager has filed several altcoin ETFs with the SEC, including Hedera, Litecoin, and XRP
• The Sui ETF comes as the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial (WLFI) announced last week that it would be adding Sui assets to its token reserve

Canary Capital has filed an S-1 form with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a Sui exchange-traded fund (ETF) as institutional interest rises.

According to a blog from the Sui Foundation, the SEC has acknowledged the filing, which it noted was a “critical early step” in the approval of the ETF.

The March 17 Sui ETF filing is the latest from Canary Capital. A few crypto ETFs it’s already filed for with the SEC include Hedera, Litecoin, and XRP. The new filing follows a regulatory change within the agency after the re-election of US President Donald Trump last November.

Since then several organizations have filed S-1 and 19b-4 forms with the SEC to track and list crypto ETFs.

Joining WLFI

The Sui Foundation said: “The Sui ecosystem’s momentum is directly attributable to its technological edge, recently attracting a flurry of institutional builders and products, surpassing $70 billion in decentralized exchange (DEX) volume, and amassing over 67 million accounts. The Canary Capital ETF filing is the latest validation of this trajectory, as institutions continue to recognize the advantages of Sui’s technology.”

News of Canary Capital filing for a Sui ETF is also significant as the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial platform (WLFI) announced last week it would add Sui assets to its token reserve.

Evan Cheng, co-founder and CEO of Mysten Labs, the original contributor to Sui, said: “We believe that the combination of Sui’s technology and WLFI’s ambitions could help redefine how the world stores and uses assets.”

The move for a Sui ETF comes after the crypto fund manager filed a trust entity in the state of Delaware on March 6. The next step for Canary Capital is to file a 19b-4 form with the SEC.

The post Canary Capital files S-1 form for a Sui ETF with the SEC appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Plume jumped 20% after YZi Labs announced an investment in Plume Network
• The price of PLUME reached $0.18, not far from its all-time high of $0.21.
• Plume has raised funds from Brevan Howard, Haun Ventures and Galaxy.

Plume Network’s native token PLUME soared 20% as YZi Labs, formerly Binance Labs, announced its investment in the layer 1 network.

PLUME rose sharply to hit intraday highs of $0.18, with this pushing bulls to near the all-time high of $0.2108. The altcoin reached this price level in January 2025.

Per CoinGecko data at the time of writing, bulls were just 15% off that peak.

YZi Labs invests in Plume Network

Plume Network is a crypto platform aiming to bridge traditional finance and decentralized finance.

Over the past several months, the project has attracted attention and investment. Largely, it’s been down to the project’s traction in the real world assets market. As it looks to bring RWA on-chain, Plume has attracted backing from Brevan Howard Digital, Haun Ventures and Galaxy.

YZi Labs is another venture capital heavyweight backing the Plume Network’s RWAfi initiative, according to an announcement.

The investment underscores Plume’s potential and sees Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao led YZi Labs continue its push into RWA, artificial intelligence and other sectors at the intersection of TradFi and DeFi.

In a comment on the investment, YZi Labs investment director Max Coniglio, said:

“At YZi Labs, we invest in projects that harness blockchain technology to create real-world impact, and Plume is a prime example—they are bringing real-world assets on-chain to unlock new capital, expand access, and drive adoption. By making RWAs as seamless as any other digital asset, Plume is bridging traditional finance and DeFi, paving the way for broader adoption.”

While today’s announcement did not disclose the financial terms of the investment, it adds to past funding moves aimed at boosting Plume’s growth. In October 2023, the project raised $10 million in a seed round led by VC firm Haun Ventures.

YZi participated in the financing deal.

On this latest collaboration, Plume Network’s chief executive officer and co-founder, Chris Yin, said:

“YZi Labs’ investment reinforces our vision of building a robust RWAfi ecosystem that drives institutional asset adoption while empowering crypto-native users.”

Who else backs Plume?

Plume has recently inked major collaborations with the likes of Superstate, Fireblocks, Aethir, BounceBit, Mercado Bitcoin and Moca Network.

As noted, YZi Labs, rebranded from Binance Labs earlier this year. The venture capital firm now operates as a family office, with Binance co-founders Changpeng Zhao and Yi He at the helm.

The firm’s investment in the RWAfi project suggests confidence in what it’s likely to achieve in the market.

Other projects that have received notable adoption include Ondo Finance and MANTRA.

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