Bitcoin Rises on Whale Buying as Hacks Raise Security Concerns

Bitcoin gained about 4% last week as large purchases by long-term holders and a drop in bitcoin held on exchanges reduced available supply. Ether climbed roughly 6% and solana about 7% over the same period.

On-chain data showed concentrated accumulation. Bitfinex reported the strongest whale buying since 2013, and aggregate bitcoin balances on exchanges fell to levels last seen in 2017. Futures positioning and other on-chain metrics indicated lower selling pressure. Bitmine reported ownership of more than 4% of ether supply, nearing a stated 5% target.

Security incidents affected multiple networks and services. CoW Swap experienced a DNS hijack that altered its public frontend while its backend remained operational. An alleged exploiter targeted Hyperbridge, minting roughly one billion DOT and converting much of the supply into ether. Solana’s Squads multisig system recorded a separate incident. A major regulated exchange reported criminal extortion attempts and said it is investigating efforts by criminal groups to access company systems.

Developers and industry organizations announced measures in response. The Ethereum Foundation launched an audit subsidy program to help early-stage projects obtain security reviews. Several protocols began restitution processes to return funds to affected users and initiated additional security checks. Industry participants warned that automated attack tools could lower the cost and speed of exploits.

Broader market factors were mixed. U.S. equity benchmarks reached fresh highs while gold and silver traded with modest gains and losses. Venture investment in crypto deals declined sharply: the number of unique investor names in new deals fell from 5,345 in 2022 to 377 in the past 90 days. NFT activity remained subdued; an entertainer sold previously purchased NFTs for roughly $13,800 after buying them for about $800,000.

Speculative tokens showed extreme volatility. A token called RaveDAO rose more than 6,000% in a month and entered the top 30 by market capitalization. On-chain analysts reported an anonymous trader captured roughly $30 million shorting low-quality tokens. On a podcast, a developer described DeFi as ‘uninteresting’ in light of recent AI-driven hacks.

Industry groups and projects said they will expand security review capacity and continue restitution where possible as market participants monitor exchange reserves, whale activity and exploit risk.