Today in crypto, Michael Saylor’s Strategy bought 34,164 Bitcoin for $2.54 billion last week, marking its third-largest BTC purchase on record, and total value locked on Aave dropped by $8 billion after the Kelp hack, the contagion of which crypto executives have argued could have been contained at the cost of capital efficiency.
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.
Aave’s TVL drops by $8 billion after Kelp hack
The total value locked on Aave dropped by nearly $8 billion over the weekend after hackers behind the $293 million Kelp DAO exploit borrowed funds on the decentralized lending protocol, leaving roughly $195 million in “bad debt” and triggering withdrawals.
Aave’s TVL fell from about $26.4 billion to $18.6 billion by Sunday, losing it the top spot as the largest decentralized finance protocol as the risk from the Kelp exploit rapidly spreads through the interconnected crypto lending market.
Hackers stole 116,500 Kelp DAO Restaked ETH (rsETH) tokens worth about $293 million from Kelp DAO’s LayerZero-powered bridge on Saturday and used them as collateral on Aave to borrow wrapped Ether (wETH).
Crypto analytics platform Lookonchain said that it created about $195 million in “bad debt” on Aave and contributed to a rapid decline in the Aave (AAVE) token.
Kelp exploit highlights problem with non-isolated DeFi lending: Crypto execs
The exploit of the Kelp liquid restaking protocol shows how non-isolated lending and integrations in decentralized finance (DeFi) can cause broader ecosystem contagion, according to crypto industry executives and blockchain security firms.
Non-isolated lending on DeFi platforms, including earlier versions of the Aave lending protocol, exposes users to risks from all the various tokens used as collateral on the platforms, according to Michael Egorov, founder of the Curve Finance DeFi protocol.
Kelp was the target of a cyber attack on Saturday, causing the platform to pause smart contracts for its restaking token (rsETH) while it moved to investigate the attack that left the platform drained of about $293 million.
DeFi teams should also vet prospective digital assets to ensure that tokens do not feature single points of failure or attack surfaces before approving tokens as lending collateral on their platforms, Egorov said in an email.
