The highly-anticipated Santa Claus rally is nowhere to be seen as bitcoin continues to lose value by dropping below $94,000.
The altcoins are also mostly in the red, with XRP dumping by 6% and XLM following suit.
BTC Fails at Recovery
It hasn’t been a particularly hopeful end of 2024 on a micro-scale. The asset began its painful decline on December 17 when its price stood above $108,000. In just a matter of three days, it had lost around $16,000 and dumped to $92,000.
The bulls intercepted the move and helped prevent a further drop below $90,000. In fact, BTC started recovering some ground and spiked toward $100,000 on a couple of occasions, but to no avail. The last such example was on December 26 when BTC touched that line but was quickly rejected once again.
The subsequent decline pushed it south hard, and the asset fell to $95,000 over the weekend. However, the landscape worsened in the past 24 hours and dropped further to $93,000. Despite bouncing off that level, for now, BTC is still over 1% down on the day.
Its market capitalization has plummeted to under $1.860 trillion on CG, and its dominance over the alts stands at 54%.
XRP Keeps Bleeding
Most altcoins are in the red once again today. The trend is led by XRP, which continues its downfall and is close to breaking below $2 now. If it dumps below that level, analysts foresee another massive decline toward $1.
XLM has also dropped hard from the larger-cap alts, losing nearly 5% of value and trading well below $0.35. BNB, SOL, DOGE, ADA, TRX, AVAX, LINK, TON, SUI, and many others are also in the red, albeit in a less painful manner.
The total crypto market cap has lost another $60 billion since yesterday and is down to $3.430 trillion on CG.
Henrik Lindqvist is our DeFi and on-chain reporter, splitting his time between Stockholm and London. A former software engineer at Klarna, he switched to journalism in 2021 and has since broken stories on MEV exploits, restaking risks and Layer-2 economics. Henrik writes the BTCNews weekly Layer-2 newsletter and has lectured on blockchain architecture at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
Raydium old pool hack: Solana DEX breach hits $1.34M, raises security concerns
Raydium, one of Solana’s biggest decentralized exchanges, was hit by an exploit in an old liquidity pool worth about $1,340,000. Not catastrophic by DeFi standards. Still, real money left the pool, and users took the hit. My take: the uncomfortable part is not just the dollar figure, but where it happened. Older DeFi infrastructure often sits there quietly until someone with patience, tooling, and bad intent gives it another look.
Specter first reported the breach and said the attacker targeted an older Raydium pool. The exact method is still being reviewed, so pretending the whole chain of events is already obvious would be lazy. What is known is enough for traders to care: about $1.34 million was drained. Why does this matter? Because a familiar logo, past audits, and years in the market do not make a protocol untouchable. We have seen that lesson repeat across DeFi, and it usually gets relearned at somebody else’s expense.
The timing is awkward. DeFi is already under pressure from regulators, especially in the US, where the SEC has been watching decentralized platforms, staking services, and tokens it may treat as unregistered securities. A $1.34 million exploit on a well known Solana DEX gives critics another case to cite when they argue for tighter rules. Most market commentary treats hacks and regulation as separate stories. That is only half right. They feed each other. One hack does not automatically change policy, but it adds to the pile, and markets do notice piles. UNI and AAVE, for example, both traded sideways during periods when regulatory concerns were part of the market conversation, even as BTC moved above $61,400 in early March.
The exploit could also push some traders toward the safer end of crypto, or at least what counts as safer in this market. When a Solana DEX gets hit, even through an old pool, people re-check their exposure. Fast. Smaller DeFi tokens usually feel that pressure first. Bitcoin and Ethereum often catch the rotation when traders get nervous because they are deeper, more liquid, easier to justify on a messy week, and less tied to one app-specific failure. A much harsher version played out after FTX collapsed in November 2022. The whole market fell, but BTC and ETH found their footing faster than many altcoins. This Raydium exploit is nowhere near that size. I’ll be honest: calling it another FTX-style event would be ridiculous. Still, it could make traders trim SOL linked exposure for a few sessions while they wait for clearer answers.
What this means for DeFi security and Solana’s ecosystem
The Raydium old pool hack points to a problem DeFi keeps running into: old contracts and forgotten pools can stay risky long after everyone has moved on. That is the boring answer. It is also probably the right one.
Market analysts say the breach could put short term pressure on Solana (SOL), mostly because it tests confidence in the apps built on the network. Counter to the usual panic read, that does not mean Solana itself failed. It does mean traders may treat the ecosystem with more caution until Raydium explains what happened and how it plans to limit the damage. Is this overkill for a $1.34 million exploit? For a small protocol, maybe. For one of Solana’s best known DEX names, no. SOL and Solana based tokens could see sharper moves as the market prices in the $1.34 million loss.
The next updates matter more than the first headline. Raydium needs to explain the exploit, say whether other pools are exposed, and clarify whether affected users have any path to recovery. Solana developers and security teams are also worth watching for network activity changes or new warnings. Regulators may comment too, especially if the story spreads beyond crypto media. Here is where I would be careful: a quiet follow-up from Raydium could hurt confidence almost as much as a bad one. For SOL, the $150 area is an obvious level traders will watch. If price breaks below it and holds there, the market may be treating this as more than a one day scare.
FAQ: Raydium old pool hack
What was the total amount lost in the Raydium old pool hack?
Initial reports put the loss at about $1,340,000.
Which blockchain was affected by the Raydium hack?
The hack involved Raydium, a decentralized exchange on Solana.
What is the primary concern raised by the Raydium old pool hack?
The main concern is that older DeFi pools can still carry real risk, even on established platforms. It may also hurt investor confidence and draw more regulatory attention.
How might this hack affect Solana (SOL) prices?
It could weigh on SOL in the short term if traders become more cautious about Solana based DeFi. Volatility may rise while Raydium shares more details.
What actions should market participants take following this incident?
Market participants should watch Raydium’s response, Solana security updates, and any regulator comments about DeFi risk.
Eleanor Ashworth is editor-in-chief at BTCNews. A Cambridge-trained journalist with 18 years across the Financial Times, Reuters and the Telegraph, she joined the crypto beat in 2017 after covering the Bank of England and HM Treasury. She holds the SABEW Best in Business award (2022) and was shortlisted for the British Journalism Awards (2023). At BTCNews she sets the editorial line for Bitcoin and macro markets coverage, with a focus on institutional adoption, regulation and central-bank policy. Based in London.
