Hristina Vasileva

Author
Hristina Vasileva

Hristina Vasileva

Author

Hristina Vasileva specializes in business and economic news. She graduated from Sofia University with a MA in Philosophy, after completing a 4-year BA in Business Administration and Journalism and Mass Communication. She has worked for one of the country’s leading newspapers, covering the commodities and corporate results beat. Currently, Hristina is a contributing author at Cryptopolitan.

Author’s Articles

  • Vitalik Buterin proposes social recovery for wallets to erase losses from technical mistakes

    Vitalik Buterin proposes social recovery for wallets to erase losses from technical mistakes
    February 28, 2025 News
  • Pump.fun activity is grinding to a halt, Solana (SOL) inflows dry out

    Pump.fun activity is grinding to a halt, Solana (SOL) inflows dry out
    February 27, 2025 News
  • New wallets boost EVM chains despite overall market losses

    New wallets boost EVM chains despite overall market losses
    February 27, 2025 News

  • Wallet of Mask Network’s founder drained, all assets swapped to Ethereum (ETH)
    February 27, 2025 News
  • Bitcoin (BTC) recent buyers realized $2.16B in losses

    Recent buyers Bitcoin (BTC) have realized $2.16B in losses
    February 27, 2025 Bitcoin
  • bitcoin

    Bitcoin (BTC) monthly options expiry gives last chance to spark a rally
    February 27, 2025 Bitcoin

  • Mastercard onboards Ondo Finance as one of its tokenization partners
    February 26, 2025 News
  • The Ethereum Foundation is donating $1.25M to the legal defense of Alexey Pertsev

    The Ethereum Foundation is donating $1.25M to the legal defense of Alexey Pertsev
    February 26, 2025 Ethereum
  • Market focus and mindshare shifts to DeFi as memes slow down

    Market focus and mindshare shifts to DeFi as memes slow down
    February 26, 2025 News
  • Solana (SOL) trading shifts to Jupiter DEX, Pump.fun fees slow down

    Solana (SOL) trading shifts to Jupiter DEX, Pump.fun fees slow down
    February 26, 2025 Solana

  • Binance CEO Richard Teng: The recent market drop is a temporary retreat, not a reversal
    February 25, 2025 News

  • TRON to carry gas-free Tether (USDT) transfers in the coming week
    February 25, 2025 Tron
  • The crypto market faced an onslaught of liquidations this February. The latest round of unwinding affected fewer positions in dollar terms, but caused a deeper drawdown for Bitcoin (BTC) and all other leading assets.  Traders got liquidated for over $809M, attacking both short and long positions. The latest liquidation event pressured Bitcoin (BTC) to break under its range, sinking to the $88,000 level. Newer data shows the liquidations continue, expanding to $1.48B in 24 hours.  For exchanges, however, any market conditions can lead to a payday in terms of fees and other sources of income related to the leveraged trade. It was precisely leveraged positions that drove the market, as traders deposited record liquidity in stablecoins.  One way exchanges benefit from turbulence is through funding fees, which accrue when holding a position. One whale on Hyperliquid accrued over $2.16M to avoid liquidation and retain their position.  Liquidations, increased trading volumes, and additional fees are boosting exchange revenues, even as crypto assets flounder. The recent crash for BTC and Ethereum (ETH) also followed a day of increased transfers from exchanges to market makers.  Exchanges have different liquidation fee schedules. Binance charges a 2% liquidation fee and 3% for pro traders.  After the recent liquidations, BTC sees extremely sparse long positions, as low as $86,000. Liquidity has now shifted to short positions up to $99,700, suggesting a market recovery may follow to challenge the most liquid tiers. The first big accumulation of liquidity is at $92,000, suggesting BTC may make a price move in that direction. Market crash helped Bybit repay its loans The recent ETH market crash made it much easier for Bybit to cover its loans. The exchange had excess liquidity for some stablecoins but lacked the needed ETH to repay in kind. Initially, it was hard for Bybit to source ETH, and the asset was trading above $2,700.  In the past 24 hours, Bybit has been using multiple avenues to acquire more ETH. The latest purchase was for another 36,893 ETH, acquired through an OTC deal. The funds originated from a high-value wallet, sent through an intermediary address created three days ago. Bybit has sourced an estimated 212,101 ETH through OTC deals in the past day, reflecting the new lowered price. The latest ETH dip to $2,370.28 meant the Bybit loan was now much cheaper and covered much faster. The rapid unraveling of assets led to peak volumes on Bybit. The exchange also became the leader in new liquidations.  Bybit liquidations do not directly translate into fund inflows Over 45% of all liquidations for the past day happened on Bybit. In the past 24 hours, over $675M were liquidated on Bybit, affecting 94.42% in long positions. The current level of liquidations is unusual for Bybit, and usually affects Binance the most, leading to more suspicions of market tampering. Bybit increased its volumes and influence in the past weeks, lining up among top-tier exchanges just before its $1.5B hack.  Bybit liquidations led the way, even surpassing activity on Binance's leveraged market. | Source: Coinglass The accrued long positions were indeed attackable, but the ability to sell large amounts of ETH raised suspicions that exchanges were coordinating to bring down the market and clear all leverage. In the end, the decision to hold leveraged positions belongs to traders, who took the risk that whales could sell and depress the market. During a liquidation event, the funds are paid out to traders that have taken the opposite position, and for covering the exchange’s claims if the positions are still open. Bybit may still hold some of the liquidated funds in its insurance fund.  At this point, it is difficult to estimate Bybit's exact share. It is unknown if the exchange itself trades against other users. The final funds available to Bybit would also depend on the leverage of the positions and the minimal funds left in the margin accounts. Some exchanges may act as market makers and retain a part of the liquidated funds.

    Exchanges stack liquidation fees as market downturn breaks leveraged positions
    February 25, 2025 News
  • Stakers are deactivating their Solana (SOL) deposits as price slides

    Stakers are deactivating their Solana (SOL) deposits as price slides
    February 25, 2025 Solana
  • Mantra (OM) goes vertical, raises concerns of crash after the March 18 airdrop

    Mantra (OM) goes vertical, raises concerns of crash after the March 18 airdrop
    February 24, 2025 News
  • Bitcoin miners shift away from coal as solar and wind adoption rises

    Bitcoin mining sector shows signs of distress after peak difficulty
    February 24, 2025 Bitcoin
  • Binance, Kraken move large amounts of ETH and SOL in sales and position shifts

    Binance, Kraken move large amounts of ETH and SOL in sales and position shifts
    February 24, 2025 News
  • Crypto VC funding drops to bear market levels in February

    Crypto VC funding drops to bear market levels in February
    February 24, 2025 News
  • Stablecoin DeFi bank Infini suffers $49M exploit after attacker retains admin-level control

    Stablecoin DeFi bank Infini suffers $49M exploit after attacker retains admin-level control
    February 24, 2025 News
  • Ben Zhou, CEO: Bybit is solvent, will cover all claims despite a growing withdrawal queue

    Ben Zhou, CEO: Bybit is solvent, will cover all claims despite a growing withdrawal queue
    February 21, 2025 News
  • Bybit

    ZachXBT: $1.46B flowed out of Bybit Ethereum (ETH) cold wallet
    February 21, 2025 News
  • Bybit

    Bybit hacked for $1.46B in Ethereum wallet security break
    February 21, 2025 News