FTX Payouts Begin, Bybit Hack & Solana Turmoil

GM, everyone!

It’s been another turbulent week in the crypto markets, with FTX finally beginning its $7B creditor distributions, Bitcoin dipping below $94K, and Solana taking a hit after the LIBRA fiasco. 

Meanwhile, institutional investors are quietly accumulating Bitcoin, Bybit suffered a $1.4B hack, and Brazil made headlines by approving the world’s first spot XRP ETF—beating the U.S. to the punch. On the macro front, Trump’s economic team has reopened talks with the Fed, setting the stage for a potential monetary shift. 

Let’s break it all down.

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TLDR

• FTX Begins $7B Payouts – Potential market impact as funds re-enter circulation.

• Bybit’s $1.4B Hack – Major phishing attack; withdrawals remain unaffected.

• Solana’s LIBRA Collapse – $4B token wiped out, triggering a broader sell-off.

• Institutions Accumulate BTC – Goldman, Barclays, and Abu Dhabi increase ETF holdings; Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) buys more.

• Brazil Approves Spot XRP ETF – Beating the U.S. to market.

• Ethereum ETF Progress – SEC opens public comments, signaling institutional demand.

• Kaito AI’s TGE Gains Traction – Community-driven token launches challenge VC dominance.

• Trump vs. The Fed – Trump pushes for rate cuts; Powell stays hawkish.

• Sonic & Berachain See Action – TVL surging as DeFi and memecoins gain momentum.

• Aptos Takeover – Meme-fueled rally is driving new liquidity and engagement.

Market Moves

FTX’s first phase of creditor payouts has begun, with approximately $7B set to be released. While some fear this could trigger sell pressure, others see it as an opportunity for capital rotation into stronger assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. At the same time, Bybit has been hit by one of the largest exchange hacks in recent history, losing an estimated $1.4B after attackers exploited a phishing scheme to compromise its Ethereum cold wallet. Despite the severity, Bybit has assured users that withdrawals remain operational, and the platform’s reserves are intact.

Over in Solana’s ecosystem, memecoin mania turned into chaos after the LIBRA token—promoted by Argentine President Javier Milei—crashed from a $4B market cap to just $53.7M due to insider selling. 

The fallout was swift: Solana’s price dropped nearly 20% in 24 hours, speculative altcoins sold off, and an incoming 15.7M SOL token unlock could add further selling pressure. The sentiment shift is significant, considering Solana had been leading the memecoin market for months.

Despite the retail panic, institutions remain unfazed and are quietly accumulating Bitcoin. The latest 13F filings show Goldman Sachs, Barclays, and even Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund increasing their exposure. 

Don’t forget this now deleted tweet from CZ. 

MicroStrategy—now rebranded as "Strategy"—raised another $2B to buy more Bitcoin, bringing its total holdings to 478,740 BTC at an average cost of $65,033 per coin. As more corporations and sovereign funds treat Bitcoin as a reserve asset, the divide between short-term volatility and long-term conviction is becoming clearer.

On the regulatory front, Brazil has leapfrogged the U.S. by approving the first-ever spot XRP ETF, signaling that nations outside the U.S. are moving forward with crypto adoption while the SEC continues delaying similar products. Meanwhile, the agency has started accepting public comments on Ethereum ETF options, a sign that institutional interest in ETH-based financial products is growing.

Elsewhere, Kaito AI’s Token Generation Event (TGE) is making waves, thanks to its community-driven launch model. By integrating Tabichain into its Yapper Launchpad, Kaito is letting users vote on projects, shifting control away from traditional VC-backed launches. Tabichain’s TABI token is set to debut soon, further expanding its scalable, EVM-compatible ecosystem.

Lastly, Trump’s economic team has reentered discussions with the Federal Reserve, pushing for lower interest rates. However, Powell isn’t budging, with the Fed maintaining its hawkish stance due to inflation concerns. The probability of a March rate cut has dropped to just 2.5%, meaning risk assets—including crypto—are unlikely to get immediate relief. However, if Trump pushes for more aggressive monetary easing, it could create a bullish tailwind for crypto later in 2025.

Capital Rotation and Flows

This past week has been quite eventful for flows in the blockchain space. Base saw a significant influx of capital, with $191M entering the platform and netting them a gain of $114M. On the other end, OP Mainnet faced substantial outflows.

Berachain and Sonic also enjoyed a notable uptick in activity as their memecoin and DeFi ecosystems heat up. 

Meanwhile, the fallout from the Libra and other memecoin rug pulls has had a considerable impact on Solana, driving investors to seek gains elsewhere. 

Revenues over the past 7 days reveal an interesting trend—PancakeSwap has climbed to third place, highlighting the recent rotation to BSC and growing activity on the network. 

Trading activity for Ordinals, Runes, and BRC-20 tokens on the Bitcoin network has recently dipped substantially, showing a clear decline in the associated transaction fees. While the Bitcoin ecosystem has certainly taken a hit, it's important to remember that this isn't likely the end. For those holding on, the current trends are part of a broader cycle of capital rotation. Patience is key. 

Sonic, Berachain & Aptos

Zoning in on key areas traders should keep an eye on, here’s a quick summary:

• Sonic has seen its TVL explode from the low double digits to over $500M since the start of the year.

• Berachain had a slow start and a somewhat underwhelming airdrop, but TVL now sits at $3B, with active addresses up 400% in the last 7 days.

• Aptos might surprise some. Late last year, a degen-led community takeover stirred things up, leading to strong momentum and a growing base. Could see some interesting pumps ahead. TVL currently just under $1B.

Aptos CTO Momentum

What started as a meme-driven “community takeover” led by a trader named BuzzlamicJihad has turned into a full-blown movement, and even the Aptos co-founder, Avery Ching, is paying attention. Normally, when a project gets “taken over” by the community, it’s because the devs abandoned it and degens swoop in to revive it. That’s not the case here. Aptos is still running, still developing, and yet, this entire meme-fueled army has gathered behind the idea that Aptos is underrated, overlooked, and ready to explode.

So what’s actually happening?

This movement isn’t just noise—on-chain activity is up, new projects are launching, and people are bridging funds into Aptos. Traders are calling it "wartime mode," decked out with Telegram chats full of military helmets and globe emojis, borrowing a page from Ethereum’s Milady NFT resurgence and Solana’s memecoin playbook.

Even Avery Ching, the co-founder of Aptos, has acknowledged the movement, calling BuzzlamicJihad the "GOAT" (whether he was joking or not, that’s all the confirmation the community needed). The idea is simple: Aptos is better than people give it credit for, its smart contract development is smoother than Sui’s, and now it has an actual army behind it.

Is this just another hype cycle or something bigger?

We’ve seen this before—Dogecoin’s Musk-fueled rallies, the Milady comeback, Solana’s memecoin mania. A strong narrative, a loud community, and a group of traders looking for the next big thing. But here’s the key difference: Aptos isn’t just another meme coin—it’s a fully operational Layer-1 blockchain.

The big question is: Does this last? If the movement keeps growing, this could be a new playbook for reviving under-the-radar blockchains. If not, well, we’ll look back at this as just another insane moment in crypto history.

Majors & Memes

This week's blockchain landscape saw AI maintain a commanding lead in market attention, with a 34.64% share, while DeFi held 13.16% of the conversation.

Meme coins accounted for 12.07% of the narrative, facing challenges due to recent controversies surrounding tokens like $LIBRA and $MELANIA, which impacted overall sentiment in this category. GameFi, captured 6.11% of attention, and has appeared to have lost its recent momentum.

Notable among AI tokens, FARTCOIN experienced a 1.51% increase in mindshare, reaching 7.22%, while BKNR also saw noticeable growth.

Smart Money Accumulation

Over the past week in the Solana ecosystem, there has been a mix of gains and losses in smart money accumulation across various tokens. Fartcoin saw a significant increase of 165.56% in holdings, making it the standout performer. Conversely, Jellyjelly and Arc experienced large declines, losing 25.08% and 30.98% respectively. 

MLG's holdings decreased by 8.59%, while terminus saw a substantial rise of 97.74%. Pep and Fullsend also recorded increases in smart money holdings, at 16.48% and 11.16% respectively. Lastly, Pain rose through the ranks achieving a total smart money accumulation valued at around $641K

Over the past week in the Ethereum ecosystem, smart money activity has been quite dynamic. DOGE led the increases with a notable 52.37% surge in smart money holdings. Similarly, CULT also gained significantly, with a 15.39% rise. On the other hand, SHRUB and JOE saw modest upticks in their holdings by 3.28% and 4.28% respectively.

WOJAK notably faced a significant pullback with a 12.87% decrease in smart money, pointing to a substantial sell-off. APU however, bucked the trend with a 29.9% increase.

Lastly, some major memes and tokens gaining traction on Sonic and Berachain include:

Berachain

• YEET ($19.2M)

• BM ($6.7M)

• RAMEN ($4.4M)

• JANI ($1.4M)

Sonic

• ANON ($100M)

• EGGS ($87M)

• SHADOW ($34.2M)

• METRO ($13.3M)

• GOGLZ ($12.6M)

• NAVI ($10.8M)

• KNUCKLES ($818K)

That wraps up this post—we hope you found the insights valuable. See you next week, anon! 🚀