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Crypto enthusiasts, gather around! Today’s headlines feature the Balancer community’s clever plan to bounce back from a recent hack. Over in South Korea, Upbit, the biggest exchange, has hit pause on deposits and withdrawals after spotting a whopping $36 million in unauthorized transfers from a Solana hot wallet. Not to mention, BitMine’s Tom Lee seems to be dialing back his bold $250,000 Bitcoin prediction for year-end.
Balancer Community Pitches a Plan to Share Recovered Hack Funds
On Thursday, two folks in the Balancer protocol community came together to present a distribution plan for some of the funds that were recovered following the protocol’s jaw-dropping $116 million hack in November.
Thanks to the efforts of white hat hackers, internal rescuers, and StakeWise — an Ether liquid staking platform — around $28 million was pulled back from the $116 million heist.
However, the plan focuses on just the $8 million nabbed by white hat hackers and internal teams, while the nearly $20 million saved by StakeWise will be shared separately with its users.
The proposal suggests that reimbursements should be tailored, meaning funds should only go back to the exact liquidity pools that experienced losses. Payments will be made on a pro-rata basis, based on each holder’s portion in the liquidity pool represented by Balancer Pool Tokens (BPT).
Plus, victims will be reimbursed in kind, meaning they’ll get payments in the same tokens they lost, keeping everything in check and avoiding any price mismatches between different digital assets!
Deddy Lavid, the CEO of the blockchain security company Cyvers, noted that the Balancer hack was one of the “most sophisticated” attacks of 2025, underscoring the ongoing need for user safety in the crypto world.
Upbit Faces a $36 Million Solana Wallet Breach
In a big move, South Korea’s largest crypto exchange, Upbit, temporarily froze deposits and withdrawals after uncovering about $36 million flowing out from a Solana hot wallet.
The exchange noted that they flagged the suspicious transfers around 4:42 am local time (7:42 pm UTC), prompting a shutdown of their transfer services and a thorough security review of their supported crypto assets.
Good news? The hack was contained to their hot wallet, and Upbit reassured users that their cold-wallet reserves were safe. They moved the remaining assets into cold storage and started freezing attempts on-chain.
This incident raises eyebrows around Dunamu, Upbit’s parent company, especially since they just announced a $10 billion acquisition deal with fintech giant Naver. It also brings back to mind Upbit’s 2019 security breach, where they lost nearly $50 million to the North Korean hacking group, Lazarus.
For now, Upbit has put a hold on all deposits and withdrawals for extra security until they fully examine the situation. This freeze isn’t just targeted at Solana assets, as they’re working hard to bolster their security across the board.
Tom Lee Pulls Back on $250,000 Bitcoin Prediction
In an interesting twist, BitMine chair Tom Lee seems to have softened his once-enthusiastic $250,000 year-end Bitcoin forecast and is now just hoping for a chance that Bitcoin can reclaim its October all-time high of $125,100 before the year wraps up.
“I still think it’s very possible for Bitcoin to be above $100,000 by year-end,” Lee said during a recent CNBC interview, “and maybe even hit a new high.” Catch the full interview here.
This appears to be the first instance where Lee has publicly adjusted his $250,000 year-end Bitcoin target, which he initially suggested earlier in 2024 and reinforced throughout early October.
Lee’s predictions were among the most optimistic in the space. But others, like Galaxy Digital’s CEO Mike Novogratz, have cautioned that “crazy stuff” would need to occur for Bitcoin to reach such heights.
Despite this, Lee believes that some of Bitcoin’s standout days might still be ahead before we ring in 2025.
“I still think there are some great days ahead,” he mentioned, with just 35 days left until the close of 2025.
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