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Crypto World

BTC price stalls at $78,000 as traders brace for liquidation-driven breakout: Crypto Markets Today

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CoinDesk CDOR (CoinDesk Indices)

The crypto market is on the brink of a major breakout with bitcoin trading at $78,000, the level it failed to breach on Friday and a price it has not topped since January.

A break above this level would trigger upside momentum to $80,000 as $180 million worth of futures positions are due to be liquidated between $77,000 and $78,000, according to CoinGlass’ liquidation heatmap.

However, there is also a $71 million long position that will be liquidated if the price fails to gain and descends back below $77,300, creating a defensive trading environment on both sides.

The market is higher after U.S. President Donald Trump extended the ceasefire in Iran, saying that country’s government was “seriously fractured.”

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Nasdaq 100 futures and S&P 500 futures rose by 0.77% and 0.6%, respectively, since midnight UTC following the announcement, suggesting improving broader market sentiment.

Derivatives positioning

  • BTC’s breakout to $78,000 caught the bears off guard, leading to $286 million in marketwide short liquidations on derivative exchanges. Longs, or bullish plays, suffered liquidations of just $132 million.
  • Still, overall crypto futures open interest (OI) has increased by over 4% to $126 billion in 24 hours. Notably, OI grew across the major tokens, including bitcoin and ether (ETH), outpacing spot price gains, indicating renewed capital inflows and rising demand for leverage.
  • Funding rates have flipped positive for most tokens, including BTC, indicating a renewed bias for bullish bets. The 24-hour cumulative volume delta also paints the same picture.
  • M token stands out with annualized funding rates above 200%, signaling an overheated market crowded with bullish bets. Meanwhile, the HYPE and XML markets show a bias toward bearish short plays.
  • Broadly speaking, crypto futures activity suggests scope for further market gains. Also supporting the bull case are bitcoin and ether’s 30-day implied volatility indices, which remain under pressure, pointing to market calm.
  • On Deribit, bitcoin and ether risk reversals continue to print negative values across all time frames. That’s a sign of the richness of protective put options relative to calls.
  • Block flows featured investor bias for call ratio spreads, a strategy used by traders to profit from a moderately bullish, sideways or slightly rising market. Traders also chased bitcoin and ether straddles, a volatility strategy.

Token talk

  • The altcoin market was also in a buoyant mood on Wednesday, with all major CoinDesk indexes posting gains of at least 1.5% since midnight UTC.
  • The CoinDesk MemeCoin Index (CDMEME) was the top performer, rising 3.4%, with one person turning $575 into more than $1 million on recently released token ASTEROID.
  • Popular memecoins TRUMP and DOGE added 6% and 3.8%, respectively, reflecting broader optimism across the sector.
  • There was also a boost in privacy coins DASH and XMR, both of which gained 6%-7% over the past 24 hours before tailing off slightly since midnight.
  • CoinDesk’s overnight rate (CDOR) for USDC rose to the highest level since 2024, hitting 15%. CDOR measures stablecoin lending & borrowing activity on the Aave platform, which spiked following the weekend’s $290 million exploit on KelpDAO. A high interest rate reflects high demand.
CoinDesk CDOR (CoinDesk Indices)

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Crypto World

Lazarus Group Malware Targets Crypto, Business Execs via macOS

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Lazarus Group Malware Targets Crypto, Business Execs via macOS

Security researchers have linked a new macOS malware campaign to the Lazarus Group, the North Korea-linked hacking operation behind some of the crypto industry’s biggest thefts.

Flagged on Tuesday, the new “Mach-O Man” malware kit is distributed via “ClickFix” social engineering schemes across traditional businesses and crypto companies, according to Mauro Eldritch, offensive security expert and founder of threat intelligence company BCA Ltd.

Victims are lured into a fake Zoom or Google Meet call where they are prompted to execute commands that download the malware in the background, allowing attackers to bypass traditional controls without detection to gain access to credentials and corporate systems, the security researcher said in a Tuesday report.

Researchers said the campaign can lead to account takeovers, unauthorized infrastructure access, financial losses and the exposure of critical data, underscoring how Lazarus continues to expand its targeting beyond crypto-native companies.

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The Lazarus Group is the main suspect in some of the largest-ever cryptocurrency hacks, including the $1.4 billion hack of Bybit exchange in 2025, the industry’s largest so far. 

Fake Mach-O Man Kit apps. Source: ANY.RUN

“Mach-o Man” kit seeks to implement hidden stealer malware

The final stage of the campaign is a stealer designed to extract browser extension data, stored browser credentials, cookies, macOS Keychain entries and other sensitive information from infected devices.

Final staging director for Stealer malware. Source: Any.run

After collection, the data is archived into a zip file and exfiltrated through Telegram to the attackers. Finally, the malware’s self-deletion script removes the entire kit using the system’s rm command, which bypasses user confirmation and permissions when removing files.

The novel malware kit was reconstructed by the security expert through cloud-based malware sandbox Any.run’s macOS analysis capabilities.

Related: CZ sounds alarm as ‘SEAL’ team uncovers 60 fake IT workers linked to North Korea

Earlier in April, North Korean hackers used AI-enabled social engineering schemes to steal about $100,000 worth of funds from crypto wallet Zerion, after gaining access to some team members’ logged-in sessions, credentials and the company’s private keys, Cointelegraph reported on April 15. 

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Magazine: 53 DeFi projects infiltrated, 50M NEO tokens could be ‘given back’: Asia Express