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Unknown Trader Up $7M While Others Lose Millions

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Vitalik Buterin 'Dumping' ETH? Co-Founder Sells Millions as Ethereum Tanks


A relatively unknown crypto trader gained $7 million from shorting ETH while major investors suffered huge losses.

An anonymous trader known only as 0x58bro has accumulated $7 million in unrealized profits by shorting Ethereum (ETH) and a handful of other cryptocurrencies, according to data from on-chain intelligence platform Arkham.

What’s noteworthy about their success is that it has come at a time when several high-profile crypto personalities have suffered eight-figure losses betting on price increases.

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The Quiet Whale Swimming Against the Current

Despite holding a portfolio valued at just under $13 million, 0x58bro maintains a minimal social media presence with just 1,300 followers on X. Arkham’s analysis shows the trader has generated the bulk of his profits from two positions: a $3.7 million gain shorting ETH and $1.45 million from shorting ENA, the governance token of Ethena Labs.

The trader’s wallet composition also revealed a strategic approach to the current market volatility. They hold over $7.5 million in Aave’s interest-bearing ETH token (aETHWETH) and $5 million in Aave’s USDC deposit token (aETHUSDC), suggesting they have positioned capital to earn yield while maintaining the flexibility to deploy it against further downside.

A smaller position of 10 million HANA tokens, currently worth close to $353,000, represents their only significant long exposure.

The timing of these short positions has proven critical, with Ethereum struggling to maintain momentum in recent weeks and prices hovering around the $2,000 psychological support level.

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Market Backdrop Shows Leverage Risks and Speculation Cycles

While 0x58bro is profiting from market declines, other traders have faced catastrophic losses attempting to catch a falling knife. On-chain data shows that Machi Big Brother, a well-known crypto personality once worth nearly nine figures, has seen his Hyperliquid account value fall below $1 million. To meet margin calls on his long positions, he was forced to tap into PleasrDAO treasury funds deposited five years ago, with his total losses now standing at $28 million.

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The contrast extends to institutional players as well. For instance, Trend Research, the trading firm led by Liquid Capital founder Jack Yi, fully exited its Ethereum positions last week after accumulating about $1.34 billion in ETH at an average entry of $3,180. The exit locked in losses of approximately $869 million, according to Arkham data, coming just days after Yi publicly predicted ETH would reach $10,000.

While Trend Research was forced to unwind what was once Asia’s largest ETH long position, on-chain data from CryptoQuant shows that wallets with no history of outflows holding at least 100 ETH, known as “accumulation addresses,” are still buying through the downturn. These addresses now hold around 23% of Ethereum’s circulating supply and have maintained their accumulation even when prices were trading below their average cost basis.

Whether 0x58bro will maintain his short positions or join the accumulating addresses betting on a rebound remains unknown. But for now, the trader with 1,300 followers has outperformed an industry of influencers with millions watching their every move.

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Brevan Howard’s crypto fund lost 30% in 2025 in worst year since inception: FT

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Bitcoin losing $70,000 is a warning sign for further downside

Investment manager Brevan Howard’s cryptocurrency fund fell almost 30% last year as the bitcoin bull run faltered, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Wednesday.

The BH Digital Asset fund lost 29.5% of its value, its worst performance in a calendar year since its inception in 2021, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the fund’s performance. The fund underperformed bitcoin, which lost 6% in the period.

BH Digital Asset, which invests in crypto tokens and digital asset-related companies, enjoyed gains of 43% and 52% in 2023 and 2024, respectively, as the crypto market recovered from the lows of 2022 and the bitcoin price eclipsed $100,000 in December 2024.

“There are a lot of private equity and venture capital type instruments [in BH Digital Asset],” said one hedge fund investor, according to the FT’s report. “They have underperformed bitcoin but to give them credit, last year was terrible for crypto.”

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Brevan Howard did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for further comment.

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Moonwell’s ‘vibe-coded’ oracle in $1.8M blowup

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Moonwell's 'vibe-coded' oracle in $1.8M blowup

It was only a matter of time before “vibe-coded” smart contracts led to a significant loss of funds and on Sunday, an oracle misconfiguration led to users of DeFi lending platform Moonwell being liquidated for a total of 1,096 Coinbase Wrapped Staked Ether (cbETH).

The protocol was also saddled with $1.8 million worth of bad debt as a result.

The error was introduced in pull request 578, submitted by Moonwell core contributor “anajuliabit” and co-authored by Claude Opus 4.6.

Including this incident, Moonwell has suffered three oracle malfunctions in the past six months, leading to over $7 million in bad debt.

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Read more: Claude AI plugins can now vibe code smart contracts

cbETH = $1.12

Moonwell’s post-mortem report states that, this time, the issue lies in calculating the dollar price of cbETH.

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“The oracle used only the raw cbETH/ETH exchange rate. This misconfiguration caused the oracle to report cbETH’s price as approximately $1.12 (reflecting the cbETH/ETH ratio of ~1.12) rather than the intended market value of roughly $2,200,” the report explains.

As a result, the error “wiped out most or all of the cbETH collateral for many borrowers.”

A total of 1,096 cbETH was liquidated. In turn, $1.78 million worth of bad debt was generated for the protocol.

Monitoring systems picked up the discrepancy and strict borrow and supply caps were set to prevent further interaction.

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Despite this, liquidation of existing positions continued. Any oracle correction requires “a five-day governance voting and timelock period, which could not be bypassed.”

Trading Strategy’s Mikko Ohtamaa pointed out that “regardless of whether the code is written by an AI or by a human, these kinds of errors are caught in an automated integration test suite.”

He highlights that Claude can even write these tests itself, but that in this case “there was no test case for price sanity.”

Others highlighted the contributor’s GitHub profile which shows an extremely high workrate, over 1,000 commits in the past week.

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Read more: Clawdbot creator Peter Steinberger: ‘Crypto folks, stop harassing me’

The dark side of the moon

Moonwell is a lending protocol active on the Base, Optimism, and Moonbeam networks. It holds around $90 million in total value locked (TVL), according to DeFiLlama data, down from a peak of $380 million in August last year.

Since then, the project has suffered a number of hiccups.

DeFi commentary account “Yieldsandmore” details two further incidents in recent months. The first came during last year’s infamous October 10 crash, when a pricing discrepancy between Chainlink feeds and decentralized exchanges on Base led to $12 million in liquidations and $1.7 million of bad debt.

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The second came less than a month later, on November 4, when the $129 million Balancer hack had a knock on effect on Moonwell’s market-based wrsETH/ETH oracle, leading to $3.7 million of bad debt.

The two incidents were apparently exploited by the same attacker, who is “clearly constantly scanning Moonwell for extractable value.”

Previously, 2022’s $190 million Nomad Bridge hack devastated the protocol’s Moonbeam deployment, its sole instance at the time.

The incident saw TVL drop 80%, from over $100 million to just $21 million.

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Sai Launches Perps Platform Combining CEX Speed with Onchain Settlement

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Sai Launches Perps Platform Combining CEX Speed with Onchain Settlement

[PRESS RELEASE – Panama City, Republic of Panama, February 18th, 2026]

Sai today launched Sai Perps, a perpetuals trading platform built to be as fast and intuitive as a centralized exchange with the transparency and self-custody of on-chain settlement. The platform features gasless transactions, removing friction for traders while maintaining full on-chain security.

Sai also unveiled Let’s Go Saicho, a one-month on-chain trading competition running from February 18 through March 19, 2026, with $25,000 in total prizes. The campaign is structured in two phases designed to reward both performance and participation: a PNL competition for profitable traders, followed by a first-come, first-serve “Be Early” phase for traders who engage early and hit a minimum volume threshold.

“On-chain markets shouldn’t require traders to compromise between speed and self-custody,” said Matthias Darblade, a Sai contributor. “Sai Perps is designed for active traders who want a clean, CEX-like experience, while still getting the transparency and settlement guarantees that only on-chain infrastructure can provide.”

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Why Sai vs. Other Perps DEXs

Sai Perps is built around the premise: trading should be accessible without the usual friction of on-chain perps. Compared to existing perpDEXs, Sai stands out in many ways:

  • CEX-like UX, on-chain settlement: A streamlined trading experience designed to be fast and familiar, with trades settling on-chain for transparency and verifiability.
  • Infrastructure built for deep, smooth markets: Sai has focused heavily on liquidity, risk systems, and oracle design to support more consistent execution and robust market integrity.
  • Accessible to both new and experienced traders: A platform experience optimized for speed and clarity, without sacrificing advanced trading capability.
  • Roadmap beyond crypto perps: Sai’s planned expansion includes stocks, commodities, and FX markets, plus user-focused capital efficiency features like Sai Savings (yield on deposits), and cross-chain deposits.

Let’s Go Saicho: $25,000 Trading Competition (Feb 18 – Mar 19, 2026)

Let’s Go Saicho is a one-month competition rewarding trading on Sai across two two-week phases:

  • Phase 1 (Feb 18 – Mar 4): PNL Competition | $20,000 prize pool, 50 winners
  • Phase 2 (Mar 5 – Mar 19): Be Early (First Come First Serve) | $5,000 prize pool, 50 winners

All markets listed on Sai are eligible in both phases. Traders may go long or short on any listed pair using supported collateral (e.g., USDC and other supported assets such as stNIBI, as available on Sai). For more details on Sai’s Trading Competition, visit here.

About Sai

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Sai is a new perpetuals trading platform designed to feel as easy and fast as a centralized exchange, while still settling fully on-chain. Sai’s mission is to make advanced trading accessible without sacrificing transparency or self-custody.

Sai is focused on finalizing its core trading infrastructure and user experience, building liquidity and risk systems for smoother execution, and laying the groundwork for yield features that help users earn on idle collateral. Next on the roadmap: expanded markets (stocks, commodities, FX), Sai Savings, cross-chain deposits, and smart accounts for gasless trading.

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ECB To Launch Payment Provider Selection For Digital Euro

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ECB To Launch Payment Provider Selection For Digital Euro

The European Central Bank (ECB) is moving closer to a pilot for a digital euro, with Executive Board Member Piero Cipollone outlining plans to begin selecting payment service providers (PSPs) in early 2026, ahead of a 12-month test scheduled for the second half of 2027.

Cipollone on Wednesday held an executive committee meeting of the Italian Banking Association. He said the pilot would involve a limited number of payment service providers, merchants and Eurosystem staff. Selection of participating providers is expected to start in the first quarter of 2026.

Cipollone said the digital euro will be designed to ensure it protects European card schemes and keeps banks at the core of the Eurozone payments system, according to Reuters.

Pilot could give PSPs an early start

European Union-licensed PSPs will be at the core of digital euro distribution, Cipollone said. For participating PSPs, the pilot offers an early-readiness advantage ahead of a potential broader rollout, including hands-on experience with onboarding, settlement and liquidity management.

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Source: ECB

He added that it also provides clearer visibility on future infrastructure, compliance and staffing costs, helping companies plan investments more accurately.

With direct Eurosystem support and the ability to feed into the design process, participants should gain both operational insight and influence over how the digital euro ultimately takes shape.

Stablecoins are not the only threat to banks, says Cipollone

The digital euro pilot is also intended to protect domestic European payment projects, such as Italy’s Bancomat card network and Spain’s Bizum peer-to-peer system.

“Banks could lose their role in payments not just because of stablecoins but also due to other private solutions,” Cipollone said, pointing to Europe’s heavy reliance on international card networks like Visa and Mastercard.

Source: Zerohedge

He added that the digital euro would be structured to preserve the competitiveness of local systems.

“The cap on the fee that merchants will pay on the digital euro network will be lower than what the international payments network, normally the costlier, charge, but higher than what domestic payments scheme, normally the cheapest, charge,” Cipollone said.

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Cointelegraph contacted the ECB for comment on the PSP selection but had not received a response by publication.

Related: Lagarde early exit report puts ECB succession and digital euro in focus

The news marks a milestone in the digital euro pilot after the ECB officially moved to the next phase of the project in October 2025, targeting a launch in 2029.

The central bank then projected that a pilot exercise could start in 2027 if legislation is put in place during the course of 2026.

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