Crypto Market Liquidity Shortage Persists, Binance Stablecoin Reserves Drop to $41.4 Billion

**Chinese Businessman Kidnapped, Killed in Turkey; 10 Suspects Arrested** According to Xinmin Evening News, 38-year-old Chinese businessman Wang was kidnapped and killed in Turkey, with his body later abandoned. Police announced Friday (Feb. 24) that 10 suspects have been taken into custody. Suspects began tracking Wang from Istanbul Airport, confirming he dined with a female friend on Jan. 19. The woman was continuously messaging on her phone during the meal, an investigation found. When Wang and the woman left the restaurant to get into their car, four suspects forced him into another vehicle. Several days later, officers found Wang’s body in a field: his hands, feet, and mouth bound with duct tape, and he had suffered severe head trauma. Authorities said the suspects had a financial dispute with Wang. They stole his phone and withdrew a large sum of money from his cryptocurrency account. The 10 arrested include the female friend and nine men.

The Federal Reserve Board will seek public comment starting February 24 on a proposal to eliminate "banking deserts"—areas where banks have denied services due to concerns about reputation risk. The proposal restates the Committee’s policy position: prohibiting punitive blanket service terminations by banks or customer de-risking against those engaged in lawful activities, as well as refusing to open accounts for such individuals or entities. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Michelle W. Bowman noted: "We have observed troubling cases where banks have denied services—with regulators pointing to reputation risk—forcing financial institutions to cut ties with customers based on their political views, religious beliefs, or involvement in unwelcome but legal businesses. Discriminatory conduct by financial institutions for these reasons is both illegal and inconsistent with the Federal Reserve’s supervisory framework." Last June, the Federal Reserve announced it would no longer include "r

On February 24, market sources report that RedotPay—a Hong Kong-based stablecoin payment fintech firm—is weighing a U.S. initial public offering (IPO) with an expected valuation of $1 billion. Earlier, RedotPay closed a $107 million Series B funding round led by Goodwater Capital. Participants include Pantera Capital, Blockchain Capital, Circle Ventures, and existing backers such as HSG (formerly Sequoia Capital China). The firm leverages stablecoins to offer global payment services and reports over 6 million registered users across 100+ global markets.

As of February 24th, Coinglass data shows Coinbase’s Bitcoin Premium Index has set a recent record for consecutive days in negative territory—40 straight days, currently at -0.0335%. That tops the roughly 30-day streak of negative premiums during the October 11 (1011) crash. Since 2023, the index has only posted a premium on 2 trading days. The Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index tracks the gap between Bitcoin’s price on Coinbase and the global market average. A negative premium typically signals heavy selling pressure in the U.S. market, diminished investor risk appetite, elevated market risk aversion, or capital outflows.

February 24th — On-chain data from Coinbob Popular Address Monitoring (https://t.me/Coinbob_track_CN) shows the largest ETH long whale (address 0xa5b…) currently holds a 15x leveraged ETH long position, with unrealized losses now widened to $11.8 million (a 138% loss). The position totals ~70,000 ETH ($127 million) at an entry price of $1991, marking it the biggest ETH long on the Hyperliquid platform. Yesterday, the whale added 10,000 ETH to its long position at an average price of $1880 (~$18.8 million). Since December 2023: - Cumulative net deposits to Hyperliquid: $55 million - Current account balance: ~$34.3 million - Total withdrawals in the past 30 days: >$23.8 million Past activity: - Late 2023: Built a ~$1 billion ETH long position (60,000 ETH) - February 2024: Closed out that position entirely - Since then: Repositioned, sticking to its high-volume buy-low-sell-high swing trading style (billion-dollar total volume)

February 24th — Per HTX market data, ESPRESSO (ESP) was consecutively listed on two top South Korean crypto exchanges (Bithumb and Upbit) today. The token’s price surged from $0.1 to over $0.16, last trading at $0.145 and marking a 68.7% 24-hour gain.