Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.
The United States government sold off nearly $1 billion of the Bitcoin it seized from Bitfinex in 2016. Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) had a massive day with record trading volume and net inflows. Meanwhile, price volatility caused a glitch at Coinbase, with some customers reporting that their account balances were showing zero.
U.S. government moves $922 million of seized Bitcoin
The U.S. government transferred $922 million worth of Bitcoin
BTC $62,938 from two cryptocurrency wallets that held funds seized from Bitfinex in 2016. The transfers occurred the same day Bitcoin breached $60,000 for the first time in over two years on Feb. 28.
The government seized the funds in 2016 after Bitfinex was hacked for approximately 119,754 BTC, worth over $7.4 billion at its current price.
The transfers occurred a day after Ilya Lichtenstein, a hacker who stole and laundered over $4.5 billion worth of Bitcoin from the Bitfinex exchange, appeared in a Washington court detailing how he pulled off one the world’s largest Bitcoin heists.
Spot Bitcoin ETF volumes shatter record with massive $7.7 billion traded
U.S.-based spot Bitcoin ETFs have set a new record for daily volume traded — beating the previous tally by over one and a half times.
The 10 ETFs saw $7.69 billion in volume on Feb. 28, per data posted to X by Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust accounted for 43.5% of the total with $3.35 billion in trading volume, doubling its previous daily record.
“The total number of trades was double too, over half a million individual trades [between] them,” Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas wrote in a Feb. 28 X post.
The record-setting day comes as Bitcoin rallied over 10% to an over two-year high of $64,000.
Coinbase users report zero balance as Bitcoin spikes to $64,000
As Bitcoin’s price ripped to $64,000 on Feb. 28, many Coinbase users complained that their account balances were zero.
The zero balance bug was confirmed by Coinbase, which clarified that user assets remained safe.
“We are aware that some users may see a zero balance across their Coinbase accounts & may experience errors in buying or selling. Our team is investigating this & will provide an update shortly. Your assets are safe,” the exchange’s support team wrote on X.
The issue appears to have since been resolved, with several users reporting that their full balances are showing up on their dashboards.
As the crypto market bull heats up, Coinbase appears well-positioned to capitalize despite occasional technical issues. On Feb. 15, the company reported strong fourth-quarter earnings, with a net income of $273 million. That was its first quarter of profitability since the 2021 bull market.
