Ether 

 price has slipped by over 5% within the last 24 hours toward $2,700 on Feb. 22.

Key catalysts driving ETH price lower today include:

• A Bybit hack involving over $1 billion in ETH.

• Growing rumors that the Ethereum Foundation may roll back the chain.

• A prevailing bearish continuation setup.

Bybit hack pushes Ether’s price down

A major contributing factor behind Ether’s declines today is the $1.5 billion exploit of cryptocurrency exchange Bybit.

As it happened:

• On Feb. 21, Hackers compromised one of Bybit’s Ethereum cold wallets, which are typically secure due to offline storage.

• Stolen assets included over 401,000 ETH and large amounts of staked ETH tokens (stETH, mETH, cmETH).

• Investigators, including ZachXBT, linked the attack to Lazarus Group through onchain transaction tracing and test transactions conducted before the exploit.

• Analyst “andxt” suggests that the North Korean group will eventually sell the stolen ETH.

• Bybit CEO Ben Zhou assured customers that the exchange remains solvent, with all client assets backed 1:1.

• Bybit secured a bridge loan covering 80% of the stolen funds to ensure withdrawals continue.

Ethereum Foundation in a pickle after Bybit hack

Voices are growing inside the crypto industry discussing Ethereum Foundation’s potential to “roll back” their blockchain to undo the effects of the Bybit hack.

Some of the leading crypto influencers teasing a “hard fork” include:

• Analyst Matthew R. Kratter claims the Ethereum Foundation should be “held responsible for aiding and abetting global terrorism” if they don’t hard fork to defund Lazarus Group.

• Arthur Hayes (BitMEX co-founder) publicly asked Vitalik Buterin if he would roll back the blockchain to help Bybit recover stolen funds.

• Will Reeves (Fold App CEO) argues Ethereum’s ability to reverse transactions is a “critical feature” to maintain faith in the ecosystem.

• This echoes the 2016 DAO hack, where Ethereum split into ETH and ETC after a rollback decision.

The Ethereum Foundation and Vitalik Buterin have not addressed these requests, even though some rumors suggest a potential community vote on a hard fork decision.

Related: Ethereum Foundation wants a social media guru to help it ‘yap better’

• A 2016-like rollback would undermine Ethereum’s credibility and may set a concerning precedent for future hacks.

• Uncertainties like these can cause market panic, leading to price declines such as the one witnessed in the last 24 hours.

Ethereum could drop another 28%

Ether’s price drop today appears after failing to break decisively above what appears to be a bear pennant pattern.

Key points:

• A bear pennant consists of a sharp decline (flagpole) followed by sideways consolidation within converging trendlines.

• If the pattern plays out, the expected target is derived by measuring the height of the flagpole and projecting it downward.

• This calculation places a potential ETH price target near $1,953, suggesting a 28% drop by March if the breakdown is confirmed.

• The price rejection at the upper boundary suggests ETH sellers remain in control, increasing downside risk.

• The Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 48.06 suggests neutral-to-bearish momentum, with room for further downside if it drops below 40.

[cointelegraph]