While most investors were resting, the crypto market demonstrated impressive volatility. Bitcoin made a sharp surge toward the $80,000 mark, and Cosmos Labs found itself at the epicenter of a serious security incident that could have far-reaching consequences for the entire ecosystem.
Market Leaders' Dynamics
At the time of analysis, at 09:00 Moscow time, the leading cryptocurrency was trading near $80,692. Over the past 24 hours, the asset's price fluctuated in a wide range from $76,750 to $81,000, indicating high turbulence. Over 24 hours, Bitcoin strengthened by 4.65%.
Ether (ETH) also showed steady growth, reaching the $2,508 mark. Over the day, the altcoin rose by 2.47%, with its quotes climbing from $2,430 to $2,530. Among the top 25 coins by market capitalization, predominantly "green" dynamics were observed. Notably, Monero (XMR) stood out with a gain of 8.52%, Solana (SOL) — by 8.10%, and Cardano (ADA) — by 3.32%. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) added 2.88%.
Among the top 100 assets, the cryptocurrency Stacks (STX) delivered the best result, surging by 18.17%. Aerodrome Finance (AERO) and Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) also showed impressive growth, rising by 16.19% and 15.92%, respectively. Meanwhile, the outsider was the coin Aave (AAVE), which lost 8.52% of its value. It was followed by Ethena (ENA) and Lighter (LIT) with declines of 6.58% and 6.19%.
Institutional Inflows and Liquidations
An analysis of flows into spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) shows that institutional investors are extremely optimistic. On Monday, inflows were observed across all major assets. Bitcoin funds attracted $337.56 million, Ethereum-based products — $115.57 million, Solana — $33.49 million, XRP — $13.82 million, Hyperliquid — $5.74 million, and Chainlink — $2.68 million. Even Dogecoin funds received $146,020. This is a clear signal of "smart money" returning to the market.
However, such a sharp rise did not come without casualties. According to data from analytical platforms, positions of 95,896 traders were liquidated over the past 24 hours, totaling $646.93 million. The main impact fell on short positions: $457.28 million versus $189.65 million for longs. This is a classic example of a "short squeeze," where market growth forces sellers to close their bets against the movement. The largest single liquidation order was recorded on Bitget for the BTCUSDT pair, amounting to $103.54 million.
Incident in Cosmos EVM
The key event of the night was the statement from Cosmos Labs regarding an ongoing security incident in the Cosmos EVM module. According to available information, the vulnerability affected users, and security and development teams strongly recommended that validators of related networks halt their operations until the issue is fully resolved.
The company has not yet disclosed the nature of the vulnerability, the list of affected networks, or the scale of potential losses. They promise to provide a detailed report after the investigation is completed. This situation highlights that even in mature ecosystems, critical points of failure remain that could jeopardize entire sidechains.
Traditional Finance and Tokenization
Amid the crypto turmoil, traditional financial institutions continue integrating digital assets. Standard Chartered Bank became the first bank to begin distributing the regulated Hong Kong stablecoin HKDAP from issuer Anchorpoint Financial. The token is offered to qualified institutional clients and partners. In the fourth quarter, the bank plans to launch subscription and settlement services for tokenized money market funds together with asset management companies, and is also exploring scenarios for cross-border payments and treasury management.
The Base network, in turn, launched tokenized shares from Coinbase under the B20 standard. The tokens are backed by real securities at a 1:1 ratio, held by regulated custodians. Qualified users will be able to hold tokenized Apple and NVIDIA shares in non-custodial wallets and use them within the network's DeFi ecosystem. Asset management is handled through regulated broker and custodian Alpaca, opening new opportunities for on-chain trading, lending, and other financial operations.
My view: The market is clearly in a recovery phase following the recent correction, but the Cosmos EVM incident serves as a sobering reminder of the risks. Investors should closely monitor the situation as it develops, since such vulnerabilities could trigger localized sell-offs in related ecosystems, even despite the overall positive backdrop.