Today in crypto, Arbitrum froze $71 million in Ether tied to the Kelp exploit, the SEC under Paul Atkins first year on the job has made a break with the past and Strategy bought 34,164 Bitcoin for $2.54 billion last week, its third-largest purchase on record.
Arbitrum freezes $71 million in Ether tied to Kelp hack
Ethereum layer-2 blockchain Arbitrum said on Monday that its security council, a 12-member body elected by its community, took “emergency action” to freeze 30,766 Ether (ETH) held in a wallet connected to the exploit of the Kelp protocol that happened on Saturday.
It said that the ETH had been moved to “an intermediary frozen wallet” and was “no longer accessible to the address that originally held the funds, and can only be moved by further action by Arbitrum governance.”
Multiple X users criticized the freeze, with Griff Green, a member of the Arbitrum Security Council, saying that the group “did not make this decision lightly, there were countless hours of debates, technical, practical, ethical and political.”
Kelp, a liquid restaking protocol, was hacked for at least $293 million on Saturday through its LayerZero-powered bridge and has caused millions of dollars' worth of “bad debt” in the highly interconnected crypto lending market.
One year under Paul Atkins, SEC’s crypto stance shows break with past
Since Paul Atkins was sworn in as chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 21, 2025, the agency has significantly changed its position on regulation and enforcement related to digital assets, marking a shift from the leadership of former chair Gary Gensler during the Biden administration.
During his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump made removing Gensler one of his promises to the crypto industry, along with creating a national Bitcoin (BTC) stockpile and opposing the issuance of a US central bank digital currency.
His November 2024 election win led to Gensler’s resignation in January 2025 and the appointment of SEC commissioner Mark Uyeda as acting chair of the financial regulator until the Senate could confirm Atkins as Trump’s pick to lead the agency.
The first 12 months of Atkins’ chairmanship has seen the SEC push policies and approaches to regulation widely viewed as favorable to the crypto and blockchain industry.
Strategy buys 34,164 Bitcoin, holdings top 800,000 BTC
Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest public Bitcoin (BTC) holder, has blasted past 800,000 BTC in total holdings after announcing its latest purchases.
Strategy acquired 34,164 Bitcoin for $2.54 billion between April 13 and 19, according to an 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
The buy ranks as Strategy’s third-largest Bitcoin acquisition on record by coin count, behind purchases of 55,500 BTC and 51,780 BTC in November 2024.
Holding around 780,897 BTC after a $1 billion purchase just a week ago, the company now holds 815,061 BTC, purchased for $61.56 billion.
The new acquisition was made at an average price of $74,395 per coin, slightly below the company’s average acquisition price of $75,527.
Saylor had teased the purchase on Sunday, signaling another large Bitcoin acquisition ahead of the announcement. The company also disclosed on Friday plans to pay Stretch (STRC) dividends twice monthly. STRC is the company’s perpetual preferred security.
