Crypto Today: Balancer Reimbursement Plan, Upbit Breach, BTC
Key developments in crypto on Thursday included a Balancer community plan to distribute funds retrieved from a recent exploit, a temporary suspension of deposits and withdrawals at South Korea’s Upbit following roughly $36 million in unauthorized Solana hot wallet transfers, and BitMine chair Tom Lee dialing back his previously stated $250,000 year-end Bitcoin target.
Balancer community outlines distribution of recovered hack funds
Two community members of the Balancer protocol submitted a proposal on Thursday detailing how to allocate a portion of assets recovered from the protocol’s $116 million exploit in November.
Approximately $28 million was recovered through efforts by white hat hackers, internal responders, and StakeWise — an Ether liquid staking platform. The proposal covers only the $8 million retrieved by white hats and internal teams. The nearly $20 million recovered by StakeWise will be distributed separately to StakeWise users.
The authors recommend a non-socialized reimbursement, meaning only the impacted liquidity pools would receive funds, distributed pro rata to holders based on their share of Balancer Pool Tokens (BPT). They also propose reimbursements be paid in-kind so recipients are compensated in the same tokens they lost, mitigating pricing discrepancies across assets.
Deddy Lavid, CEO of blockchain security firm Cyvers, described the Balancer incident as among the “most sophisticated” attacks in 2025, underscoring the evolving nature of crypto security risks.
Upbit pauses transfers after $36 million Solana hot wallet incident, following $10 billion Naver deal news
Upbit, South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, temporarily halted deposits and withdrawals on Thursday after detecting about $36 million in unauthorized outflows from a Solana-network hot wallet.
The exchange said it identified suspicious activity at approximately 4:42 am local time (7:42 pm UTC), prompting a suspension of transfer services and a comprehensive security review of supported assets. Upbit reported that the compromise was confined to its hot wallet, noting that cold-wallet reserves were not affected.
As a precaution, Upbit moved remaining assets to cold storage and initiated onchain freezing actions. The platform-wide pause on deposits and withdrawals extends beyond Solana-based tokens and will remain in effect until the review concludes.
The incident drew added attention to Dunamu, which had just announced a $10 billion acquisition deal with fintech firm Naver. It also recalled Upbit’s 2019 breach, when nearly $50 million was stolen in an attack attributed to the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group.
Tom Lee tempers $250,000 Bitcoin outlook; year-end ATH now uncertain
BitMine chair Tom Lee has moderated his previously promoted forecast that Bitcoin would reach $250,000 by year-end, now saying it is only a “maybe” that BTC can retest its October all-time high of $125,100 before the year closes.
In a Wednesday interview with CNBC, Lee said he still expects Bitcoin to finish the year above $100,000 and “maybe even to a new high.”
Bitcoin is down 1.85% over the past 12 months. Source: CoinMarketCap
This appears to be the first instance of Lee publicly softening the $250,000 year-end target, which he first advanced earlier in 2024 and reiterated into early October. By comparison, other industry leaders, including Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, cautioned in October that “crazy stuff” would need to occur for Bitcoin to reach that level.
Lee nevertheless suggested stronger moves may still occur before the end of 2025, adding there are 35 days left until the end of 2025.
#Bitcoin #Blockchain #Cryptocurrencies #Altcoins #Asia #Business #Security #South Korea #Hackers #Hacks #Upbit #DeFi #Solana #Regulation #Companies
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