Crypto’s Rough Day 😬

So, About That $100 Billion…

What in the world happened?

Apparently, someone pilfered $128 million from Balancer (across SIX blockchains, seriously?), the Federal Reserve is being all coy about interest rates, and some very important people with a lot of cryptocurrency decided to cash out. It’s like a financial triple whammy.

How much did people lose?

Oh, just a casual $1.2 billion in leveraged positions. Small potatoes, really. 🙄

The crypto market had a bit of a wobble on Monday, shedding around $100 billion. It’s currently sulking at $3.5 trillion, which is a 4% decline. I mean, things could be worse. You could be explaining this to your mother.

Bitcoin dipped below $108,000 to a measly $106,500 [3%]. Ethereum fared even worse, tumbling a dramatic 8% to $3,600. The drama! 🎭

So, the three culprits? That aforementioned $128 million Balancer heist, the Fed’s ambiguous whispers, and whales-those mysterious creatures who own enough crypto to move the market with a sigh-decided to take some profits.

Balancer’s Bad Day

Hackers apparently found a loophole in Balancer’s V2 vaults at 09:00 GMT on November 3rd. It feels like every morning now brings a new crypto exploit; you’d think people would start using stronger passwords than “password123.”

A flawed access control allowed all sorts of unauthorized withdrawals across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Polygon, and Sonic. It’s truly a blockchain buffet for hackers.

PeckShield, bless their diligent hearts, confirmed the damage: $128 million gone. Mostly in WETH, osETH, and wstETH. Apparently someone really likes their ETH.

Berachain responded by basically hitting the panic button and halting their entire network for an emergency hard fork. It’s the digital equivalent of shouting “EVERYONE FREEZE!”

This ranks as the third-largest DeFi hack of 2025. Only Bybit’s $1.5 billion boondoggle in February and Cetus Protocol’s $223 million loss in May were bigger. Honestly, at this point, how have we not figured out security?

The Fed Plays Games

San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly started talking about the December rate decision. She said the central bank should “keep an open mind” about another cut. So, basically, they’re undecided. Thanks for clearing that up, Mary. 🙄

Daly approved of last week’s tiny rate reduction, but stressed the delicate balance. As if we weren’t already balancing enough precarious things.

Inflation’s still stubbornly above the Fed’s 2% target, and the job market is slowing down. It’s a financial tightrope walk, apparently.

This Fed uncertainty gave the U.S. dollar a boost, and risk assets like crypto felt a bit of a pinch. Markets like certainty. Who knew?

Everyone’s now glued to the economic data releases this week – JOLTS, ADP, inflation reports. They’ll determine if December brings another rate cut, or more nail-biting.

The Whales Have Spoken

Liquidations obliterated over $1.2 billion in leveraged positions in 24 hours. That’s a lot of margin calls. 💸 Long positions took the biggest hit at $1.1 billion.

CryptoQuant data shows that a Bitcoin OG – the kind who probably mined Bitcoin on a potato – offloaded 13,004 BTC in October. They’re taking profits, I guess. Smart.

This same whale transferred 1,200 BTC to Kraken last weekend. It’s like watching a slow-motion financial exodus.

A Glimmer of Hope?

Strategy bought the dip, adding 397 BTC for $45.6 million, at $114,771 per bitcoin. Their total holdings are now 641,205 BTC. They’ve also seen a 26.1% return on their Bitcoin investment this year. It pays to be optimistic, I suppose.

Ripple is also making moves! They acquired Hidden Road in October and launched Ripple Prime for U.S. institutional spot trading on November 3rd. Plus, their RLUSD stablecoin crossed the $1 billion mark. 🎉

Binance data shows $7.3 billion in stablecoin inflows, suggesting people are waiting to pounce when the market calms down. It’s a waiting game now, really. A nervous, slightly sweaty waiting game.

2025-11-04 03:25