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China’s factory output and consumption beat forecasts, while property investment contraction slows

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China's factory output and consumption beat forecasts, while property investment contraction slows

Staff sort parcels on the mail sorting assembly line at the Postal Delivery Logistics Joint Distribution Center in Mengshan County, Wuzhou City, Guangxi Province, China, on January 28, 2026. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Costfoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

China’s economy started on a strong footing this year, with consumption and production both beating expectations as holiday spending and strong foreign demand provided an early boost.

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Retail sales for the first two months of the year rose 2.8% from a year earlier, beating economists’ forecast for a 2.5% growth, while reflecting a notable slowdown from the 4% growth in the January-February period in 2025.

Industrial output climbed 6.3%, also exceeding expectations for a 5% jump in a Reuters poll. Industrial production has been a relative bright spot in the world’s second-largest economy, thanks to resilient external demand, particularly from European and Southeast Asian nations.

Investment in fixed assets, which includes property, advanced 1.8% from a year earlier, compared with the forecast of a 2.1% drop. Investment in real estate development declined further as a real estate crisis dragged on, falling 11.1% in January and February, moderating from the 17.2% drop in 2025.

The fixed asset investment saw an unprecedented slump in 2025, declining 3.8% year over year, as a deepening property downturn and tighter constraints on local governments’ borrowing hampered one of China’s traditional growth drivers.

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Chinese leadership unveiled its annual economic goals for 2026 just last week, tamping down the GDP growth target to a range of 4.5% to 5%, the least ambitious goal on record going back to the early 1990s.

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Crypto World

Solana (SOL) Faces Heavy Selling Pressure as $110M Flows to Exchanges

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Brian Armstrong's Bold Prediction: AI Agents Will Soon Dominate Global Financial

Key Highlights

  • Approximately 1.40 million SOL tokens—worth roughly $110 million—transferred to exchanges within a 72-hour period, signaling potential sell-side pressure.
  • A bear flag pattern breakdown on daily charts has invalidated a critical market structure level near $85.
  • Immediate support is established at $77, while a failure at this zone could expose the $66–$70 range.
  • The 4-hour chart shows a bearish SMA crossover, with the 20-period moving average slipping beneath the 50-period line.
  • Meanwhile, Solana’s ecosystem growth remains robust, with real-world asset tokenization crossing $2 billion and SoFi deploying enterprise banking infrastructure on the blockchain.

Solana (SOL) is experiencing heightened downside risk following substantial token movements to centralized trading venues, compounding an already fragile technical landscape. Currently hovering between $79 and $81, the cryptocurrency has declined approximately 2.95% over the last seven days.

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Solana (SOL) Price

Blockchain analytics specialist Ali Martinez identified approximately 1.40 million SOL tokens migrating to exchange wallets during a three-day span. This transfer represents roughly $110 million in value moving onto trading platforms. Historically, elevated exchange inflows correlate with imminent selling activity as holders position to liquidate assets.

Technical analysis reinforces the bearish narrative. Analyst Crypto_Scient observed a confirmed breakdown from a bear flag formation on the daily timeframe, with price action violating the pivotal market structure transition level at $85. This threshold had previously delineated bullish from bearish control, and its breach suggests vulnerability to additional downside pressure.

Further deterioration appears on the 4-hour chart, where a bearish moving average crossover has materialized—the SMA-20 crossing beneath the SMA-50. This configuration typically precedes extended declines. Trading activity now occurs below a significant supply zone, indicating market acceptance of reduced valuation.

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Critical Support Zones Under Scrutiny

Near-term demand has emerged around the $77 level, which has functioned as temporary support during recent trading sessions. Should this floor collapse, market observers anticipate a test of secondary support spanning $63 to $67.

Trader Marcus Corvinus highlighted that the $92–$95 region previously served as a robust defense zone, but concentrated selling at those levels propelled SOL into the current $75–$78 range. He characterized this area as pivotal, where price behavior will likely dictate the subsequent directional move. A breakdown could accelerate losses, whereas a successful defense might trigger a violent short covering rally.

The primary support band is positioned between $66 and $70, consistent with projections from Crypto_Scient. Any recovery attempt toward $84–$89 may constitute merely a retest of broken structure rather than a genuine trend reversal.

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Fundamental Developments Persist

Notwithstanding price deterioration, Solana’s infrastructure continues attracting institutional adoption. SoFi recently unveiled an enterprise-grade banking platform constructed on Solana’s blockchain, facilitating both fiat currency and stablecoin settlement. The network’s real-world asset tokenization volume has exceeded $2 billion, with major payment processors leveraging Solana for stablecoin transaction processing.

Analyst Crypto Patel emphasized that Solana has received commodity classification from regulatory authorities, establishing it within a favorable compliance framework. The digital asset currently trades approximately 77% beneath its historic peak valuation.

Market commentator RoccobullboTTom identified sustained long-term accumulation occurring between $75 and $85. A decisive reclaim above $100 would transform the momentum profile, establishing $120 and $125 as subsequent resistance objectives.

A $285 million security breach affecting Drift Protocol and impacting 20 projects has contributed to near-term caution across the ecosystem.

Daily trading volume maintains robust levels exceeding $1.68 billion, demonstrating continued market engagement despite downward price movement.

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Drift Protocol Exploit Took ‘Months Of Deliberate Preparation’

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Drift Protocol Exploit Took 'Months Of Deliberate Preparation'

Drift Protocol, a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (DEX), says the recent exploit against the platform was a six-month-long, highly coordinated attack.

“The preliminary investigation shows that Drift experienced a structured intelligence operation requiring organizational backing, significant resources, and months of deliberate preparation,” Drift said in an X post on Saturday.

The decentralized exchange was exploited on Wednesday, with external estimates putting losses at around $280 million.

It all began at a “major crypto conference”

According to Drift, the attack plan can be traced back to around October 2025, when malicious actors posing as a quantitative trading firm first approached Drift contributors at a “major crypto conference,” claiming to be interested in integrating with the protocol.

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Source: Drift Protocol

The group continued to engage contributors in person at multiple industry events over the following six months. “It is now understood that this appears to be a targeted approach, where individuals from this group continued to deliberately seek out and engage specific Drift contributors,” Drift said.

“They were technically fluent, had verifiable professional backgrounds, and were familiar with how Drift operated,” Drift said.

After gaining trust and access to Drift Protocol over six months, they used shared malicious links and tools to compromise contributors’ devices, execute the exploit, and then wiped their presence immediately after the attack.

The incident serves as a reminder for crypto industry participants to remain cautious and skeptical, even during in-person interactions, as crypto conferences can be prime targets for sophisticated threat actors.

Drift flags a high probability of a Radiant Capital hack link

Drift said, with “medium-high confidence,” that the exploit was carried out by the same actors behind the October 2024 Radiant Capital hack.

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In December 2024, Radiant Capital said the exploit was carried out through malware sent via Telegram from a North Korea-aligned hacker posing as an ex-contractor. 

Source: Dith

“This ZIP file, when shared for feedback among other developers, ultimately delivered malware that facilitated the subsequent intrusion,” Radiant Capital said.

Drift said it is “important to note” that the individuals who appeared in person “were not North Korean nationals.”

Related: Naoris launches post-quantum blockchain as quantum security risks gain attention

“DPRK threat actors operating at this level are known to deploy third-party intermediaries to conduct face-to-face relationship-building,” Drift said.

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Drift said that it is working with law enforcement and others in the crypto industry to “build a complete picture of what happened during the April 1st attack.”

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