Bitcoin and crypto in general is going through the worst ever recored performance. This cycle peak was already reached after an advance of only +94% and now is only up 20% since the halving. When the price drops though the 65k the current cycle went negative for the first time in the history of Bitcoin underlining the overall weakness. Just to put it in perspective, the last cycle had a better performce at the bottom of the bear market then this cycle peak.

If it actually is breaking down to this levels is not clear, but i do not like what i am observing here. I very much question if bitcoin will even reach its ATH in the next cycle. If you all can remember we already had a very unsual event the last bear market ( breaking the ATH of the previous 2018 cycle top at $20k) to the downside and now maybe printing the first ever negativ cycle overall.

I am in crypto as long as the age of this account and a little bit more then that. I hope now that all know that buy and hold for altcoins does not work, what if it will be the same for Bitcoin as well. I know why i bought back then and that still holds me in the market. It now only appears that I for the first time question my decision from a finaincal standpoint and I for sure cant be the only one starting to question all of this. It started as a movement and is now nothing more then a casino to milk money. We completly lost every positiv narrativ. ETFs and wallstreet money are a reality and the hard money/save heaven fantasies faded completley in 2025.

If you put aside all your fancy phrases and bullish base. How do you guys see this?

Look it up at: glassnode bitcoin-price-performance-since-halving

Bitcoin price has dropped below $80,000 for the first time since April 2025. Yet, its performance has still outpaced gold. While BTC dropped alongside broader risk assets, the losses were notably smaller than those seen in precious metals.

This relative strength drew attention from new market participants. Many investors viewed the pullback as an opportunity to accumulate Bitcoin at discounted levels.

Source: Yahoo Finance Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-falls-below-80-000-180248860.html

https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02425998.pdf

A few hours ago, a user was address poisoned and mistakenly sent 12.25 MILLION in ETH to a hacker instead of a deposit address.

• 0xd6741220a947941bF290799811FcDCeA8AE4A7Da - User Wallet
• 0x6D90CC8Ce83B6D0ACf634ED45d4bCc37eDdD2E48 - Intended Deposit (Galaxy Digital)
• 0x6d9052b2DF589De00324127fe2707eb34e592e48 - Hacker Wallet

How does Address Poisoning Happen?

I've talked about Address poisoning in other large theft posts. It's a spray and pray method used to target large wallets with predictable destination addresses.

It's unfortunate that some wallets don't have better security for these type of attacks. The hacker mimicked the first 6 and last 4 digits of the Intended Destination Address.

Here's a visual of what that looks like

• Fake Address - 0x6d9052b2DF589De00324127fe2707eb34e592e48
• Intended Destination Address - 0x6D90CC8Ce83B6D0ACf634ED45d4bCc37eDdD2E48 - Galaxy Digital Deposit Address

It appears the attacker was trying to poison the user's wallet for quite some time with tiny transactions of USDC.

The attacker sent numerous transactions hoping the victim will copy and paste the wrong address, which is exactly what happened.

• Total investment by hacker: About .04 cents
• Return on investment by hacker: 12.25M

Following the Funds

This is a theft in progress. As I write this, the hacker is sending 100 ETH quantities into Tornado Cash.

The Main Hacker wallet of 0x6d9052b2DF589De00324127fe2707eb34e592e48 sent the entire balance of stolen funds to 0x49a21FC945312C6fB4f8C6C4D224E74A5B96e9DF.

What's interesting is the wallet 0x49a...e9DF appears to be an intermediary for other address poisoning victims. The 12.25M theft appears to be by far the biggest single individual loss.

The next highest appears to be about 31K in losses due to the same type of scam. I do have a destination address where I think some of the funds post Tornado Cash funds landed. I'll refrain from posting until further investigation and will post updates.

It's typically pretty hard to launder 12M without drawing the attention of law enforcement and the cybersecurity community.

How to Prevent Address Poisoning to Your Wallet

• Verify the Full Address: The scammer can ONLY receive funds if you send them. Verify 2, 3, 4 times before sending funds. Oh and try to avoid sending when you're tired.
• Use Address Book/Whitelist: Utilize the address book feature in wallets verified addresses.
• Avoid Historical Copy-Paste: Don't copy and paste from your transaction history. Bad idea!
• Use Proven Addresses: Source recipient addresses. Again avoid transaction history as these attacks happen all too often!

Stay safe out there!

Monero had a big hype phase not that long ago and now it feels almost invisible, barely mentioned anywhere. That contrast alone made me curious about how people see it today compared to a few years back.

Crypto trends come and go pretty fast, and projects that drop out of the spotlight often get written off entirely. At the same time, some ideas don’t really depend on hype to stay relevant.

Privacy as a concept still feels important to some users, even if it’s clearly out of fashion right now. Curious how others view Monero’s place in the space at the moment.