Lighter responds to "HYPE Flash Loan Order Book Data": It is attributed to a rogue bot and did not trigger liquidation, with on-chain data remaining unchanged

Wintermute posted a market update on social media on February 24, noting that BTC has tried (and failed) to push above $70k several times since the cascading liquidation two weeks ago. The lack of a solid rebound attempt matters more than the sideways trading itself. Price action’s choppy, liquidity’s thin, the range is tightening, and there’s no clear directional conviction. ETH dropped below $1900 this week—a level that’s more psychologically meaningful than technically critical, with the real line in the sand for ETH around $1600. Even though prices have stabilized, institutional demand hasn’t come back— a stark contrast to the $85k-$95k range we saw earlier. The derivatives market shows little directional bias or trading interest: basis is at multi-month lows, put option skew is elevated and climbing, and open interest has been falling steadily since October. On the exchange side, fund flows lean heavily toward selling. That said, a curious signal popped up midweek: high-n

**Empery Digital Inc. Shareholder Urges CEO Resignation, Board Replacement, Bitcoin Sale** On February 24, Tice P. Brown—Empery Digital Inc.’s 9% shareholder—sent a letter to the company’s board urging CEO Ryan Lane to resign immediately, the entire board to be replaced, and all Bitcoin holdings to be sold without delay. Brown stated that Empery Digital management privately approached him with an offer to repurchase all his shares at 100% of net asset value (NAV)—a significant premium to the current market valuation—on the condition he sign a standstill agreement. The offer was presented via a call with a buyback broker on February 18 and confirmed in writing on February 23; Brown rejected it. “This proposal is especially offensive at a time when a small number of shareholders clearly need to redeem their funds urgently,” Brown said. “For months, shareholders have been selling their shares back to the company’s buyback program at a steep discount to immediate liquidation value

February 24 — The Ethereum Foundation today announced it has officially begun staking a portion of its treasury holdings to implement the treasury policy it unveiled last year. On-chain data shows the Foundation completed a 2,016 ETH deposit today, with an expected total of roughly 70,000 ETH to be staked. Staking rewards will flow back to the Foundation’s treasury. The staking uses open-source software solutions Dirk and Vouch, developed by Attestant: Dirk acts as a distributed signing tool supporting collaboration among independent entities across multiple jurisdictions, eliminating single points of failure risk; Vouch enables multi-client composition strategies to reduce client diversity risk. The Foundation noted its deployment architecture includes minority client nodes and a hybrid of hosted infrastructure plus multi-region self-managed hardware. It added the move will not only strengthen the Ethereum network’s security but also provide sustainable funding for the Foundatio

On February 24, on-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa) reported that the bulls who’d accumulated 105,000 ETH in long positions have added to their holdings again, now sitting on a floating loss exceeding $20.592 million. Currently, two addresses hold a combined 120,000 ETH in long positions, valued at $219 million. Their entry prices are $1,991.53 and $2,012.11, respectively, with liquidation prices at $1,362.75 and $1,350.22. They’ve also paid a total of $472,000 in funding fees.

Update (February 24, 2026) — Official sources confirm Binance will list four spot trading pairs on February 25, 2026, at 16:00 UTC: ADA/U, DOGE/U, PEPE/U, and TAO/USD1. Trading bot services will also be available for these pairs. Additionally, ADA/U, DOGE/U, and PEPE/U spot and margin trading pairs will have 0 Maker fees starting at 16:00 UTC on February 25, 2026, until further notice.

On February 24, Presto Research Deputy Researcher Min Jung noted that Bitcoin’s dip below $63,000 appears to reflect broad-based weakening in crypto market sentiment—not a single fundamental catalyst. In the near term, macro headwinds (notably tariff tensions and renewed geopolitical uncertainties) are amplifying digital assets’ risk-off tone. Jung added: “Notably, while traditional risk assets have held up relatively well, cryptocurrencies have recently underperformed. This divergence suggests the sell-off isn’t purely macro-driven—it also reflects weak marginal demand, thinning liquidity, and ongoing deleveraging in crypto-native markets.” Bitrue Research Director Andri Fauzan Adziima said: “We’ve seen massive long liquidations—hundreds of millions of dollars wiped out—along with negative funding rates, a sharp drop in open interest, and a heavily bearish skew in the futures market. Short-term holders have taken heavy losses, but long-term holders haven’t started mass selling y