Gate Daily (February 24): Jane Street sued by Terraform liquidator; Ethereum forms a new team to promote DeFipunk

Bitcoin (BTC) continues its decline from the beginning of the week, currently around $63,500 as of February 24. The Ethereum Foundation has established a DeFi team to promote the development of the “DeFipunk” protocol. Jane Street, sued by Terraform for liquidation, is accused of using insider trading to accelerate the market crash.

Macro Events & Crypto Highlights

1. The Ethereum Foundation has set up a new DeFi team under App Relations to support the development of new protocols aligned with the “DeFipunk” philosophy. Former DELV CEO and former MakerDAO governance architect Charles St. Louis has been appointed as DeFi protocol expert, and Gearbox Protocol co-founder Ivanivangbi as a founder. The team emphasizes that DeFi should remain permissionless, censorship-resistant, privacy-first, self-custodied, and open-source. They will provide research support, connection channels, and ecosystem showcases for related projects, collaborating with the restructured Privacy Cluster from last year to promote developments including user-controlled AI, high-throughput on-chain futures, futarchy DAOs, and ZK privacy credit lenders.

2. According to the Wall Street Journal, Todd Snyder, the court-appointed administrator responsible for liquidating Terraform Labs founded by Do Kwon, has sued market maker Jane Street, its co-founder Robert Granieri, and employees Bryce Pratt and Michael Huang. The complaint alleges that Jane Street used non-public information obtained from Terraform insiders to trade, illegally profiting and accelerating the collapse of the Terraform ecosystem. Snyder is seeking damages from the defendants.

News Highlights

1. Step Finance’s three projects have simultaneously shut down; Remora states that rToken can be exchanged for USDC at a 1:1 ratio with full backing.

2. IoTeX offers a 10% bounty to recover approximately $4.4 million stolen from cross-chain bridge.

3. Since February 2, Vitalik has sold a total of 10,723 ETH.

4. The Ethereum Foundation’s DeFi team promotes the development of the “DeFipunk” protocol.

5. Jane Street sued by Terraform liquidators, accused of insider trading to accelerate the market crash.

6. UK media reports: Trump’s “Peace Commission” plans to launch a stablecoin to reshape Gaza’s economy.

7. A newly created wallet withdraws 500 BTC from an exchange, worth $32.9 million.

8. World Liberty Fi co-creation: USD1 is fully backed with reserves and can be verified at any time.

9. US-listed Bitcoin mining company Abits Group raises $2.1 million through a rights issue.

10. GWEI team distributes tokens worth $6 million to 10 new wallets, some of which have already transferred to exchanges.

Market Trends

1. Latest Bitcoin news: BTC continues its decline from the start of the week, currently around $63,500. In the past 24 hours, $239 million in liquidation, mainly long positions.

2. The three major US stock indices closed on February 23 with declines of over 1%. The Dow dropped more than 800 points amid ongoing concerns about AI’s potential impact on industries and corporate profits. Uncertainty remains over US tariffs following last week’s Supreme Court ruling, prompting investors to withdraw from high-risk stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 821.91 points, down 1.66%, closing at 48,804.06; S&P 500 down 71.76 points, 1.04%, closing at 6,837.75; Nasdaq down 258.80 points, 1.13%, closing at 22,627.27. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 46.96 points, 0.57%, to 8,213.46.

(Source: Counter Flow)

3. In the BTC/USDT liquidation map, with the current price at 63,847 USDT, if the price drops to around 62,625 USD, the total liquidation of long positions exceeds $17 million; if it rises to around 66,675 USD, the total liquidation of short positions exceeds $14 million. Short liquidations are lower than longs; it is advisable to control leverage ratios reasonably to avoid large-scale liquidations during market fluctuations.

(Source: Coinglass)

4. In the past 24 hours, BTC spot inflow was $3.79 billion, outflow was $3.94 billion, net outflow of $150 million.

(Source: Coinglass)

5. In the past 24 hours, net outflows in contracts for $PIPPIN, $ESP, $ZEC, $POWER, $AGLD, and others lead to trading opportunities.

Selected Opinions from X KOL

Phyrex Ni (@Phyrex_Ni): “Homework is hard to write. I’d rather write about the industry changes brought by AI than do homework. So I’ve procrastinated until now. Mainly, it’s about tariffs, geopolitical conflicts, and a series of slow eruptions that seem to have no end. First, tariffs—Trump believes his tariffs don’t need Supreme Court approval, which is the president’s right, but this has caused chaos in the EU and other regions. Then there’s the $134 billion tariff refund dispute, with the House and Senate still bickering. Democrats want to push legislation, and they’ve made it clear they won’t agree to Trump’s tariffs after 150 days, but that period will likely be chaotic until early July.”

“That’s not all. The geopolitical risk between the US and Iran is escalating. Oil prices are rising, and the Pentagon has submitted a budget adjustment plan to Congress, allocating $151 billion for ships, missiles, and fighter jets—more than enough for tax refunds. Market data shows that the Democrats’ midterm election prospects are improving, and Trump and the Republicans are struggling.”

“Back to Bitcoin data: the price decline has increased trading volume and turnover rate, but it’s clear that most of the active traders are short-term investors buying and selling in the past two days. Investors holding above $70,000 or below $60,000 haven’t shown significant changes, indicating more investors are moving toward long-term holdings, actively or passively. The chip structure is currently very healthy, and early investors are almost not participating in the turnover. My feeling is that lower prices are increasingly difficult to shake out long-term holders.”

Today’s Outlook

1. UK February CBI Retail Sales Expectations Index, previous value: -30

2. US February Chamber of Commerce Consumer Confidence Index, previous value: 84.5

3. 15% US global tariffs take effect

4. US President Trump delivers the State of the Union address