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Infini Hacker Returns After Exploit, Buys Ether Dip Worth $13M

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Crypto Breaking News

A wallet tied to Infini’s $50 million breach has re-emerged after nearly a year, showing activity as crypto markets wobbled and Ether was bought during a broad price dip. The exploiter’s address moved to accumulate Ether (CRYPTO: ETH) worth about $13.3 million as the asset traded around $2,109, then shifted the funds into Tornado Cash, a mixing protocol used to obscure transaction paths. Industry observers noted the pattern as a sign that the attacker remains engaged with the proceeds rather than exiting entirely into cash-like assets. The move comes months after the initial breach and subsequent legal actions, underscoring ongoing tensions between on‑chain theft, tracing efforts, and attempts to recover stolen funds.

The revelation comes as the market faced a broad downturn and a string of heavy liquidations. Data from Coinglass showed roughly $2.56 billion in leveraged positions wiped out during a single session, marking one of the largest forced liquidations on record. Ether slid to a multi-month low, briefly dipping to around $1,811—its lowest point since May 2025—before rebounding in the following sessions. The price action provides a unsettled backdrop for the attacker’s re-entry into the market, suggesting a strategy of leveraging recovered funds to pursue additional opportunities rather than an immediate exit into non-volatile assets.

Infini exploiter buys ETH dip after massive liquidations

The renewed on-chain activity has drawn renewed scrutiny from analysts monitoring the Infini case. Lookonchain captured a comment noting the attacker’s apparent skill at buying low and selling high, a paraphrase of the on-chain behavior that has characterized the flow of funds since the breach. The exchange of value aligns with a broader pattern where the attacker, after swapping stolen holdings into stablecoins, previously used market volatility to maximize returns on the remaining balance. The latest tranche—an ETH purchase in a period of heavy selling—illustrates the continuing dynamic between negative price pressure and opportunistic trading by the exploiter.

The Infini breach, disclosed earlier in 2025, involved the withdrawal of stablecoins from the project’s treasury and a disruption that led to tens of millions of dollars in losses. The stolen USDC (CRYPTO: USDC) was promptly swapped for Dai (CRYPTO: DAI), a step often seen in breach scenarios where attackers convert into assets perceived as less likely to be frozen. The latest transactions, observed on public blockchain data, indicate that the attacker still holds a substantial balance and remains active, using market conditions to optimize the remaining capital rather than fully unwinding the position.

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The attacker’s path after the exploit has included legal action from Infini. In March, Infini filed a Hong Kong lawsuit against a developer and several unidentified individuals believed to have ties to wallets involved in the breach. An injunction was issued in conjunction with the case, illustrating a concerted legal effort to restrain further transfers and to pressure the attackers for restitution. The litigation underscores a broader trend of cross-border legal strategies in crypto hacks, where on-chain evidence is used to deter further misappropriation and to seek accountability from individuals and entities linked to the breach.

The case also reveals prior incentives offered by Infini. Early in the dispute, the protocol circulated a 20% bounty for the return of the stolen funds, arguing that it had gathered signals about the attackers’ identities and devices. While this approach has drawn mixed reception in the security community, it reflected a pragmatic attempt to recover assets without resorting to more aggressive measures. Commentators note that the on-chain trail remains complex, with multiple wallets and cross-chain moves complicating the path to recovery.

Alongside the legal push, the market backdrop continues to shape the risk environment for asset holders and developers. Ether’s weakness during the recent sell-off and its subsequent stabilization highlight how liquidity and macro sentiment can influence on-chain theft dynamics. The combination of a high-profile breach, ongoing legal proceedings, and a volatile price environment creates a difficult operating landscape for projects like Infini and for the broader ecosystem attempting to deter and resolve similar incidents.

Why it matters

The Infini case is a clarion call for the industry on several fronts. First, it illustrates how attack proceeds can remain active long after the initial breach, with stolen funds used to participate in ongoing trading activity rather than simply being moved to stable storage. This persistence complicates both asset tracing and potential recovery efforts. Second, the Hong Kong action demonstrates that cross-border litigation is increasingly a tool in crypto security, aiming to secure injunctions, identify defendants, and gather evidence that could inform civil remedies or facilitate asset recovery.

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For users and developers, the episode underscores the importance of robust fund-flow controls and post-incident transparency. As exchanges and analytics providers document new on-chain moves, the industry benefits from improved visibility into attacker behavior, which can inform both security posture and policy discussions around prosecutorial reach and asset recovery mechanisms. In parallel, communities tracking on-chain activity must balance privacy considerations with the public interest in preventing and deterring theft, especially when attackers exploit high-volatility markets to maximize gains.

From a broader market perspective, the Infini developments come during a period of heightened liquidity risk and liquidity-driven price swings. The sensitivity of prices to large liquidations and the speed at which funds can be redistributed through mixing services highlight the ongoing tension between openness and resilience in the crypto economy. Regulators and industry participants alike are watching how enforcement actions, court interventions, and improved traceability capabilities will shape future breach responses and the recovery prospects for victims.

What to watch next

  • Progress in Infini’s Hong Kong lawsuit: judicial rulings, expedited actions, and any further injunctions or writs related to the attackers’ wallets.
  • On-chain developments: additional movements of the exploited funds, including any new transfers to or from mixing services and potential attempts to skirt tracing.
  • Regulatory and enforcement updates: any statements or actions from authorities that could influence asset recovery or cross-border cooperation in similar cases.
  • Updates from Arkham, Lookonchain, and other analytics firms on attacker behavior and new wallet activity tied to the event.
  • Market implications: how ongoing investigations and legal actions interact with liquidity dynamics and risk sentiment in the wake of the recent large-scale liquidations.

Sources & verification

  • Arkham data on the exploiter’s wallet activity linked to the Infini breach and its transfer route to Tornado Cash.
  • Coinglass data detailing the 10th-largest liquidation event and the roughly $2.56 billion in leveraged position wipes.
  • Historical reports on Infini’s $50 million hack, including the early swap from USDC to DAI and the subsequent legal actions.
  • Infini’s Hong Kong lawsuit filing and the court injunction related to the attacker’s wallets.
  • On-chain messages naming individuals connected to wallets involved in the breach and related court communications.

Infini exploit activity and legal action

The renewed on-chain activity around Infini’s breach illustrates how recovered proceeds continue to fuel trading activity, even as legal actions aim to hold attackers accountable. The ETH purchases executed during periods of downturn demonstrate that the attacker remains engaged with the funds, seeking upside in a choppy market rather than exiting entirely. The involvement of Tornado Cash as a mixer emphasizes the ongoing tension between privacy-focused tooling and the enforcement dimension of asset recovery. As Arkham’s traces and Lookonchain’s analyses show, such patterns can persist for months, complicating both tracing efforts and the prospect of fund recovery for the victim project.

Analysts caution that while the attacker’s continued activity may offer opportunities for investigators to piece together more of the provenance, it also poses ongoing risks to market integrity. The Infini case remains a touchstone for discussions about post-breach governance, the viability of bounty programs, and the role of regulatory frameworks in accelerating resolution. The absence of a definitive recovery creates a chilling effect for projects contemplating similar incidents, underscoring the need for robust incident response, transparent reporting, and effective collaboration with on-chain analytics providers.

Looking ahead, observers will be watching for any policy shifts that could affect cross-border litigation in crypto hacks, as well as the evolution of on-chain tracing technologies designed to unmask illicit fund flows even when mixers are deployed. The Infini case, while a single incident, captures a broader arc of risk in the crypto sector—where high-profile breaches test the interplay between market dynamics, legal instruments, and the evolving toolkit of investigators.

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In sum, the Infini hack continues to cast a long shadow over the sector, serving as a live case study in asset tracing, legal recourse, and the resilience of decentralized finance ecosystems in the face of sophisticated exploitation.

Tickers mentioned: $ETH, $USDC, $DAI

Sentiment: Neutral

Price impact: Neutral. While Ether moved lower amid the market sell-off, the report indicates no immediate, identifiable price correction tied solely to the on-chain activity linked to the Infini exploit.

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Market context: The incident unfolds amid a broader cycle of high volatility, record liquidations, and ongoing enforcement activity shaping liquidity, risk appetite, and asset-tracing capabilities across crypto markets.

Risk & affiliate notice: Crypto assets are volatile and capital is at risk. This article may contain affiliate links. Read full disclosure

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Strategy’s STRC maintains dividend at 11.5% after steady increases

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Strategy’s STRC maintains dividend at 11.5% after steady increases

Strategy, the world’s largest publicly traded Bitcoin holder, has held the 11.5% dividend rate on its perpetual preferred stock, Stretch (STRC). This marks the first time the product has not seen a dividend increase since the product launched in July 2025.

STRC debuted in July 2025 with a 9% dividend and has since undergone seven dividend increases. The company was able to maintain the current rate after the volume weighted average price (VWAP) for the month reached $99.95, keeping the shares close enough to their $100 par value.

Strategy positions STRC as a short duration, high yield savings alternative. The perpetual preferred stock pays monthly cash distributions, with the dividend rate adjusted each month to support trading near par and limit price volatility.

During Tuesday’s session, STRC held close to par for most of the day. The company is estimated to have purchased over 1,000 BTC, and it took 12 days for STRC to recover back to par following the ex dividend date. It is likely the shares will continue trading near par over the next two weeks, leading up to the April 14 ex dividend date.

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Meanwhile, Strive (ASST), the bitcoin treasury asset manager, saw its own perpetual preferred product, SATA, reach $100 par for the first time. This enabled the company to issue shares through its at the market (ATM) program to fund additional bitcoin purchases. SATA currently offers a dividend rate of 12.7%.

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Aave V4 Launches on Ethereum Mainnet

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Aave V4 Launches on Ethereum Mainnet


Announced at EthCC in Cannes, the upgrade enables institution-specific borrowing environments, structured credit products, and RWA-backed lending within a unified liquidity system.

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Australia passes crypto regulation requiring exchanges to obtain financial services licenses

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Australia passes crypto regulation requiring exchanges to obtain financial services licenses

Australia passed legislation on Wednesday, creating its first comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets that requires crypto exchanges and custody providers to obtain financial services licenses.

The Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025 cleared both houses on April 1, bringing firms that hold digital assets on behalf of customers into the existing Australian Financial Services Licence regime.

Australia’s bill creates two new regulated categories under the Corporations Act: digital asset platforms, which hold crypto on behalf of users, and tokenized custody platforms, which hold real-world assets and issue a corresponding digital token.

Operators of both must obtain an Australian Financial Services License from ASIC, bringing them under the same core rules as brokers or fund managers, including requirements to safeguard client assets, provide standardized disclosures, avoid misleading conduct, and maintain dispute resolution and compensation systems.

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Instead of regulating crypto itself, the law targets the companies in the middle that control customer funds, aiming to reduce risks like commingling, insolvency, and misuse of assets that have caused losses in past crypto failures.

Research from the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Center and industry groups estimates Australia could generate as much as A$24 billion annually from tokenized markets, payments, and digital assets, roughly 1% of GDP. Under the previous regulatory path, the country was on track to capture just A$1 Billion of that by 2030.

A Kraken spokesperson said the law provides a “top-down signal” that Australia is serious about digital assets, adding that clearer rules would give firms confidence to invest and expand locally.

Kate Cooper, CEO of OKX Australia and co-chair of the Digital Economy Council of Australia, called the bill a “pivotal moment,” saying it establishes a foundation for institutional participation and long-term capital allocation.

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Price of tungsten, sulfur and helium

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How the Iran war is squeezing metals markets and key industries

Almonty’s tungsten mine in Sangdong, South Korea, in March 2026.

Almonty

BEIJING — The Iran war is squeezing a global commodities market already pressured by China’s export controls and stockpiling efforts.

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Prices of three niche elements — tungsten, sulfur and helium — have climbed sharply in recent weeks.

While none of the commodities are traded as widely as oil, the surge indicates how ripple effects from the Middle East conflict could end up restricting production of the semiconductors that power artificial intelligence advances.

Tungsten, a metal nearly as hard as a diamond, creates the electrical connection in the core of a semiconductor chip. Sulfuric acid, a byproduct of sulfur, cleans chip wafers. Helium enables smooth production of semiconductors since the gas prevents unwanted chemical reactions in the manufacturing process.

Those are just some of the ways in which the three elements have become critical for modern manufacturing, including for defense.

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Beijing started to ramp up its control over the critical supplies even before the Iran war started on Feb. 28, partly as tensions with the U.S. escalated over the last few years.

China started restricting tungsten exports just over a year ago, and in December called for tighter limits on sulfuric acid exports. Helium, a gas that’s difficult to store, saw the volume of Chinese imports rise by 15.7% in 2025, after a nearly 65% surge in 2024, according to Wind Information.

The Iran war and the ensuing constraints on the Strait of Hormuz, a critical Middle East shipping route for energy and chemicals, has tipped some oversupply situations into undersupply, while exacerbating existing shortages.

How the Iran war is squeezing metals markets and key industries

Prices of the three commodities have jumped in some cases by more than oil. The widely used fossil fuel has climbed by more than 50% in March, putting Brent on track for a record month.

“While the Chinese supply chain is being viewed as more resilient than many peers, the risk of disruption in chemicals as raw materials for manufacturers in selected segments is higher than expected based on the feedback,” Goldman Sachs analysts said in a report late last week, citing nearly 40 commodity-related meetings and site visits in China.

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Tungsten

Tungsten hit a record high of over $3,000 late last week, marking a surge of well over 50% for the month and more than tripling in price since late December. That’s based on the industry benchmark called “ammonium para tungstate (APT)” in metric ton units, or MTU, from Fastmarket, as quoted by tungsten miner Almonty.

Almonty officially reopened a large tungsten mine in Sangdong, South Korea, earlier this month, and plans to start producing some tungsten this year at a project in the U.S. state of Montana.

The company’s CEO Lewis Black told CNBC that defense sector demand for tungsten has been “extremely strong” since the beginning of last year, but that there’s been no notable change despite the Iran war.

“There’s no material to stockpile. That’s probably the biggest change,” he said.

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Sulfur

The price of sulfuric acid in Africa is now at least 30% higher than it was prior to the war, and is still rising, the Goldman Sachs analysts said, citing a local Chinese miner in Africa.

Other assessments point to a milder rise in prices.

China sulfur prices, including cost and freight, climbed by about 13% from early March to $621 per tonne as of March 26, according to S&P Global Platts.

“A 2-3 month effective blockade would likely become a severe supply shock, especially as freight/insurance stay elevated and Middle East-origin cargoes become harder to execute,” Pan Yuya, lead analyst for sulfur and phosphate raw materials at S&P Global Energy, and Isaac Zhao, senior principal analyst, China fertilizers at S&P Global Energy, said in a March 20 note.

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The S&P analysts said that around 56% of China’s sulfur imports came from the Middle East in 2025.

“Even prior to the Middle East conflict, sulfur prices were rising sharply as the market tightened. With sulfur prices now at fresh record highs, the ‘super squeeze’ in this rather obscure commodity in supply warrants further examination,” HSBC analysts said in a March 16 report.

Helium

Helium prices have roughly doubled since the Iran war began, according to Fitch Ratings.

As most trading occurs through long-term private contracts between industrial gas suppliers and manufacturers, it is difficult to pinpoint industry-wide prices, said Shelley Jang, Fitch’s director of Asia-Pacific corporate ratings.

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Iranian missile attacks this month crippled a key industrial center in Qatar, which produces about one-third of the world’s helium.

That implies helium supply won’t be restored anytime soon, pointed out Christopher Ecclestone, principal and mining strategist at Hallgarten & Company.

In one indication of further market tightness, prices of helium in China’s Henan province have reversed a downturn this year to climb from a Feb. 28 low of 545 yuan ($78.85) a bottle to 600 yuan ($86.81), according to Wind Information.

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Shortages caused by the Iran war are the latest supply chain disruption to rock global markets, which faced similar shocks from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the Covid-19 pandemic. That’s pushed companies to diversify, and countries such as China to ramp up stockpiling plans.

“Access to supplies of certain physical materials where production and processing is concentrated in China will become more frequent topics of negotiations with Beijing,” Rhodium Group said in a March 24 report.

Limited price transparency also means the shortage could be worse than available numbers suggest.

Tungsten and helium prices have been surging, “but you don’t have anyone on the buy side saying, ‘oh my goodness, we don’t have enough product,’” Ecclestone said. “Defense contractors should have warehouses of tungsten, but they don’t.”

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“The world has got lazy. It thinks life is like a supermarket, the product is a pack of cornflakes or a few tons of sulfuric acid,” he said. “The supermarket of commodities has had a few of the aisles chopped down.”

Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

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Valinor Raises $25M Seed Round to Bring Private Credit Onchain

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Valinor Raises $25M Seed Round to Bring Private Credit Onchain


The ex-Blackstone team wants to move beyond crypto-collateralized loans and into ‘real economy credit’ as the tokenized RWA sector continues to grow.

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Fidelity says Bitcoin’s Cycle Drawdown is the Mildest Yet

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Fidelity says Bitcoin’s Cycle Drawdown is the Mildest Yet

Bitcoin has declined by about 50% this market cycle, far less than in previous cycles, Fidelity Digital Assets said, adding this trend could continue over time. 

Bitcoin’s post-all-time-high drawdowns have historically been steep, at about 80% to 90%, but this cycle has been about 50%, Fidelity Digital Assets research analyst Zack Wainwright said Tuesday.

One can see the “diminishing returns” that have developed from cycle to cycle when looking at Bitcoin’s price performance from the perspective of the previous all-time high, he said.

“Each cycle has been less dramatic to the upside than the previous,” he said. “Downside risk has been less dramatic in 2026, the current cycle, as well,” he added. 

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Bitcoin’s price hit its current cycle low of just over $60,000 on Feb. 6, a decline of 52% from its Oct. 6 all-time high of about $126,000, according to TradingView. It is currently down 46% from its peak six months ago. 

The previous cycle saw a much larger decline of 77%, from the 2021 all-time high of $69,000 to a bear market low just below $16,000 in November 2022. 

Bitcoin may bottom in late September

Fidelity’s assessment that this Bitcoin cycle is notably shallower than prior cycles “indicates a maturing market with reduced volatility and stronger institutional confidence,” Nick Ruck, director of LVRG Research, told Cointelegraph on Wednesday. 

“This shift signals that Bitcoin is changing from a speculative asset toward a more stable store of value, potentially paving the way for greater adoption in the future.”

Related: Bitcoin’s $10K range expected to hold until spot traders show up: Data

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Meanwhile, Alphractal founder Joao Wedson observed Tuesday that Bitcoin’s top occurred 534 days after the last halving, a shorter span than in the previous cycle.

This “decaying pattern” across cycles suggests the historical bottom may occur between 912 and 922 days after the halving, which “points to a bottom in late September or early October 2026,” he said. 

BTC is below key daily moving averages 

Bitcoin remains below the key 50-day and 200-day exponential moving averages, two long-term trend indicators. 

It is hovering at the 200-week EMA, around $68,000, which has served as a key level of support during previous market downturns. 

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BTC remains below key daily moving averages. Source: TradingView

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