Hodler’s Digest, Feb. 16 – 22 – Cointelegraph Magazine

Top Stories of The Week

Bybit exchange hacked, over $1.4 billion in ETH-related tokens drained

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has been hacked for over $1.4 billion in liquid-staked Ether, Mantle Staked ETH and other ERC-20 tokens, according to pseudonymous onchain security analyst ZachXBT, who spotted the incident shortly after it occurred.

Following the exploit, the onchain sleuth warned users to blacklist addresses associated with the hack. Bybit co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou confirmed the incident and provided an update on the security breach.

Zhou confirmed that a transfer was made from the exchange’s multisignature wallet to a warm wallet approximately one hour prior. The CEO also said the specific transaction was masked to appear legitimate but contained malicious source code designed to alter the smart contract logic of the wallet and siphon funds. 

SEC agrees to drop enforcement case against Coinbase

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to dismiss its lawsuit against centralized exchange firm Coinbase, which had accused the company of operating as an unregistered securities broker.

According to an announcement from Coinbase, the dismissal is still subject to approval by an SEC commissioner before the suit is officially withdrawn. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said:

“If this goes through, it’s a really big deal, not just for us, but for the whole crypto industry, the 50 million Americans who hold crypto, and I think for the rest of the world because this is an important signal about where things are going.”

Ross Ulbricht calls for ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ Roger Ver to be freed next

Pardoned Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht is asking for clemency for Roger Ver, also known as “Bitcoin Jesus,” who is facing a possible decades-long prison sentence for alleged tax evasion.

In a Feb. 20 statement to X, the recently freed Ulbricht said Ver advocated for him while he was imprisoned, and now he wants to return the favor.

“Roger Ver was there for me when I was down and needed help. Now Roger needs our support,” he said. “No one should spend the rest of their life in prison over taxes. Let him pay the tax (if any) and be done with it.”

SBF cozies up to Republican Party amid clemency push

Former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried has spoken out from prison about his political donations, citing a political shift following high-profile contributions during the 2020 United States elections.

In an interview with The New York Sun, SBF said he gave money to the Democratic Party in the 2020 election to prevent the political faction from “becoming the party of Bernie Sanders” — a Democrat senator from Vermont famous for his socialist views.

The former FTX executive briefly outlined his rightward political shift over the last several years. SBF told the interviewer:

“I would say that I viewed myself at the time as sort of center-left. And that is not how I feel myself anymore. It is not how I came to view myself by 2022.”

Nigeria files $81.5B lawsuit against Binance exchange: Report

The government of Nigeria has filed an $81.5 billion lawsuit against Binance, the world’s largest centralized exchange by trading volume, for $2 billion in back taxes and $79 billion in economic damages for allegedly crashing Nigeria’s local fiat currency.

According to Reuters, Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said Binance has a “significant economic presence” inside Nigeria and unpaid taxes from 2022 and 2023.

FIRS is also reportedly demanding a 26.75% interest payment on the back taxes allegedly owed by the company and continues to claim that the exchange was instrumental in lowering the value of the Nigerian naira in foreign exchange markets.

The West African country previously charged and detained two Binance executives, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, alleging tax fraud and money laundering. FIRS later dropped the tax charges against both executives.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $95,770, Ether (ETH) at $2,646 and XRP at $2.56. The total market cap is at $3.14 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Story (IP) at 160.53%, Sonic (prev. FTM) (S) at 55.42% and Maker (MKR) at 44.09%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Raydium…