A crypto trader spent $3.8 million to buy Ether at a significantly higher price after selling the asset for almost the same amount about a month ago. 

On May 22, blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain reported that a crypto wallet spent $3.8 million to purchase 1,425 Ether (ETH) at $2,670 per coin, reentering ETH after a major rally. 

On April 13, the same wallet sold 2,522 ETH for $3.9 million, when the asset was trading at about $1,570, a decision that, in retrospect, looks poorly timed. 

“Think twice before selling your bags,” Lookonchain wrote, highlighting the potential gains if the trader just held on to their Ether instead of selling and repurchasing it at a higher price point. 

Whale buys ETH after selling over a month ago. Source: DeBank

Trader loses out on $2.67 million gain

With ETH up over 70% since the sale, the trader lost out on over 1,000 ETH, or roughly $2.67 million, in the process of buying back in. If the trader had decided to hold on to their Ether, the assets would be worth about $6.7 million. 

As ETH rallied, the asset surpassed the market capitalization of big companies like Coca-Cola and Alibaba.

At the time of writing, company data tracker 8marketcap shows that Ether’s $321 billion market capitalization makes it the 38th most-valuable asset in the world, surpassing the pharmaceutical company AbbVie and inching closer to the Bank of America. 

Ether’s upswing was largely fueled by the successful launch of its Pectra upgrade. The update improved the network’s scalability, validator user experience and smart-wallet functionality. These updates are expected to drive broader adoption of the Ethereum mainnet. 

Related: Bitcoin open interest hits record high as bulls stampede toward new BTC price highs

ETH leads crypto investment products with $205 million weekly inflows

Along with its recent price appreciation, ETH-based investment products in the United States also saw renewed interest. 

A May 19 report from digital asset manager CoinShares revealed that US crypto investment products saw $785 million in inflows last week. This development pushes the year-to-date (YTD) total for crypto ETPs to $7.5 billion. 

ETH was the top performer among the crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs), attracting $205 million in inflows last week. This represented 26% of all the inflows within the time period. This also brought ETH’s YTD total to over $575 million. 

The CoinShares report attributed the increased inflows to renewed investor optimism following the Pectra upgrade and also the Ethereum Foundation’s appointment of Tomasz Stańczak as a co-executive director. 

Magazine: TradFi is building Ethereum L2s to tokenize trillions in RWAs: Inside story 

Cetus, a decentralized exchange (DEX) built on the Sui blockchain, has reportedly suffered a massive exploit that may have drained more than $200 million worth of digital assets.

Pseudonymous Web3 researcher COMDARE3 posted on X that “users report” that Sui-based DEX Cetus is being exploited.” He also shared a screenshot of Cetus market data on DEX Screener, showing many assets losing well over half of their value over the last 24 hours.

Some tokens, such as Lombard Staked BTC (LBTC) or AXOLcoin (AXOL) lost the near totality of their value. The top 15 losers all lost in excess of three-quarters of their price.

Cetus DEX-listed asset pricing data. Source: DEX Screener

The alleged exploiter’s address contains nearly $52 million of Sui (SUI) tokens, $4.9 million of Haedal Staked SUI (HASUI), over $19.5 million of Toilet (TOILET), nearly $19.5 million of wrapped USDt (USDT) and many other assets. The official Cetus X profile claimed that an incident on the protocol was detected, and the smart contract was paused for safety.

Related: Coinbase hacker trolls ZachXBT onchain after $42.5M THORChain swap

Source: Cetus

Suspicious fund transfers raise alarm

However, blockchain analysts and compliance firms are raising doubts about the project’s transparency. A representative from AMLBot told Cointelegraph:

“Don’t be fooled by the @CetusProtocol team claiming it’s just a bug, not a hack, Just a bug?”

Related: AI tool claims 97% efficacy in preventing ‘address poisoning’ attacks

The AMLBot representative — referring to statements made by Cetus team members on Discord — further explained that while the Cetus team “is calling this incident ‘just a bug,’ — the timing raises questions.” They added:

“We’re seeing $212 million being bridged to Ethereum at a rate of $1 million per minute. […] While we were talking, [they] drained another $3 million.”

Onchain data service Onchain Lens stated in an X post that “the attacker gained control of all SUI-denominated pools, exploiting over $200M, and has also started moving $USDC.”

Magazine: DeFi’s billion-dollar secret: The insiders responsible for hacks

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

The market cap of the world’s first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, surpassed that of retail and tech behemoth Amazon on “Bitcoin Pizza Day.”

Market data shows that Bitcoin (BTC) had a market cap of $2.205 trillion at the time of writing, $70 billion more than the $2.135 trillion Amazon valuation.

“By surpassing Amazon in terms of capitalization, Bitcoin has attracted even more attention from the non-crypto audience,” said Alex Obchakevich, founder of Obchakevich Research.

Obchakevich said the latest rally “will strengthen confidence in Bitcoin and lead to new injections into the crypto market.” The surge came as Bitcoin set a new all-time high and traded above $110,000, which Obchavich said will “attract new investors to large funds.”

Obchakevich noted that institutional players continue to expand their role in the digital asset space:

“In May, BlackRock became the second largest bitcoin holder after Satoshi Nakamoto, surpassing Binance in this indicator.”

Hassan Khan, the CEO of Bitcoin liquidity platform Ordeez, told Cointelegraph that “this is a structural change.” He explained that “Bitcoin is no longer simply a hedge, it’s in the process of becoming a benchmark currency.”

Related: Bitcoin ‘looks exhausted’ as next bear market yields $69K target

The crypto market approaches new highs

According to CoinMarketCap data, the total cryptocurrency market cap stood at $3.49 trillion at the time of writing. While high, this is still nearly 6% lower than the all-time high of $3.71 trillion reported at the end of 2024.

Total crypto market cap one-year chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

More CoinMarketCap data shows that Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw nearly $604 million of net inflows on May 21. The current open interest on crypto derivatives is $756.16 billion for perpetual swaps and $3.24 billion for futures. Looking into the future, Obchakevich shared his view on Bitcoin’s direction:

“We are moving gradually towards $200,000, with gradual adjustments. I am sure that this year we will see Bitcoin at $150,000 and $90,000.“

Khan said that “large net inflows to ETFs and increasing open interest demonstrate that institutional confidence is growing.” Looking forward, he said:

“Short term profit taking and macro rate uncertainty are tempering momentum. But below-the-surface metrics […] point to continued high conviction. The foundation is more solid than in any other cycle before it.“

Related: BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF notches 2-week high inflow as BTC nears $112K

Today is a special day for Bitcoin

Today, May 22, is “Bitcoin Pizza Day,” a recurrence commemorating May 22, 2010, when programmer Laszlo Hanyecz made the first documented purchase of goods using Bitcoin, paying 10,000 BTC for two Papa John’s pizzas.

“What was once considered a highly speculative risk has evolved into a serious asset class,” said Ulli Spankowski, chief digital officer at Boerse Stuttgart Group.

Spankowski added that, nowadays, Bitcoin “boasts a market capitalization of over 2 trillion US dollars, ranking it as the fifth-largest asset globally, behind gold and the three largest publicly traded companies.”

Magazine: NBA star Tristan Thompson misses $32B in Bitcoin by taking $82M contract in cash