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‘Big Short’ investor Michael Burry warns bitcoin plunge could trigger $1B gold, silver sell-off

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‘Big Short’ investor Michael Burry warns bitcoin plunge could trigger $1B gold, silver sell-off

Michael Burry, the investor known for predicting the 2008 financial crisis, warned that bitcoin’s recent drop could have ripple effects across markets, particularly in gold and silver.

In a Substack post Monday, Burry said crypto’s decline may have forced institutional investors and corporate treasurers to unload positions in other assets to cover losses.

“It looks like up to $1 billion in precious metals were liquidated at month’s very end as a result of falling crypto prices,” Burry wrote, pointing to the end-of-January dip in gold and silver. He suggested speculators and treasury managers rushed to de-risk by selling profitable holdings in tokenized gold and silver futures.

Bitcoin briefly fell below $73,000 on Tuesday, marking a 40% decline from recent highs. Burry said the plunge exposes the cryptocurrency’s weak foundation and threatens firms with large holdings, such as Strategy (MSTR).

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“There is no organic use case reason for Bitcoin to slow or stop its descent,” he said. If the price falls to $50,000, Burry warned, mining firms could face bankruptcy, and the market for tokenized metals futures could “collapse into a black hole with no buyer.”

Burry argued bitcoin has failed in its pitch as a digital safe haven and alternative to gold.

“There’s nothing permanent about treasury assets,” he added, dismissing the idea that corporate or institutional holdings in bitcoin would provide lasting support.

Bitcoin’s recent bull run was fueled by the launch of spot ETFs and a wave of institutional interest. But Burry sees these as temporary forces rather than signs of real adoption. In his view, bitcoin remains speculative and unanchored by any inherent value or widespread utility.

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While Burry’s bearish takes often spark debate, they’ve also proven prescient before. For investors with crypto exposure, his warning raises questions about what happens if bitcoin’s fall triggers another wave of forced selling across markets.

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Crypto World

Ketman Project Identifies 100 North Korean IT Workers Working in Web3

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Ketman Project Identifies 100 North Korean IT Workers Working in Web3

The Ketman Project, funded by an Ethereum Foundation stipend, identified 100 North Korean IT workers and alerted about 53 projects employing DPRK operatives.

The Ethereum Foundation said it funded a six-month project that exposed 100 North Korean operatives who had infiltrated Web3 companies under fake identities.

The foundation on Thursday shared a recap of its ETH Rangers program, which was launched in late 2024 to provide “stipends for individuals doing public goods security work” within the ecosystem.

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One of the recipients used the capital to build the Ketman Project to focus on investigating “fake developers” embedded within crypto, particularly operatives from the People’s Republic of Korea.

During the six-month stipend period, the Ketman Project identified “100 different DPRK IT workers operating within Web3 organizations” and reached out to about 53 projects to alert them about having potentially employed active DPRK operatives.

“This work directly addresses one of the most pressing operational security threats facing the Ethereum ecosystem today,” the Ethereum Foundation said.

North Korean operatives have been plaguing the crypto sector, leading to billions worth of crypto stolen over the years. One of the highest-profile hacking groups from North Korea is known as the Lazarus Group.

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Ketman Project website articles on DPRK operatives. Source: Ketman Project

The Ethereum Foundation did not go into detail about how the Ketman Project was able to identify the DPRK operatives. However, the project’s website has an extensive range of articles explaining the types of “tactics, behaviors and operational patterns” the operatives deploy.

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They include technical red flags such as reusing avatars and profile metadata across multiple GitHub accounts, exposing unlinked email addresses during accidental screen sharing, and displaying default language settings, such as Russian, that contradict their claimed nationality.

Alongside identifying North Korean operatives, the Ketman Project also developed an open-source detection tool to identify suspicious GitHub activity and co-authored an industry-standard framework for identifying DPRK IT workers in partnership with blockchain-focused nonprofit organization the Security Alliance.

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