Biggest Hack Ever? $1.5 Billion Stolen! w/ Su Zhu

Watch on YouTube ↗  |  February 23, 2025 at 01:06  |  1:14:48  |  Steady Lads Podcast
Speakers
zhusu — Former CEO, Three Arrows Capital
Justin Bram — Reporter, The Block
Jordi Alexander — Founder & CEO, Selini Capital
Taiki Maeda — Founder, HFA Research

Summary

The podcast discusses the $1.5B Bybit hack attributed to Lazarus, Bybit's crisis response, and the market's surprisingly constructive reaction. Su Zhu explains why the hack may be bullish for ETH and ETHBTC due to forced buying and a synthetic short. The group also covers the LIBRA memecoin collapse, Solana trenches, VC alt short squeezes, Kaito, Aptos, new L1s, AI agents, and Maker. Su remains selectively bullish on ETH, altcoins, SUI, Kaito, and Maker while skeptical on Aptos and rotating memecoins.

  • Bybit lost $1.5B in ETH in a hack linked to Lazarus; Bybit prioritized withdrawals and avoided major contagion.
  • Su Zhu sees the hack as bullish for ETH short/midterm because Bybit must repurchase ETH and effectively has a synthetic short.
  • ETHBTC and ETF products were framed as relative beneficiaries of onchain security concerns.
  • The LIBRA launch and celebrity memecoin dynamics dominated Solana trench discussion; Su expects launches to continue but apexes may fall.
  • Su highlighted short squeezes in hated VC alts like Story/IP and Berachain/BERA.
  • He bought Kaito at $1, likes its social-layer utility, and is bullish Maker on interest-rate spread potential.
  • Su is cautious on Aptos ecosystem-building but bullish on new L1s and SUI; he views memecoins as fast-fashion rotation trades.
  • Macro backdrop was described as fine, with China/Hong Kong strong and crypto choppy but not extremely bearish.
Ideas
zhusu Former CEO, Three Arrows Capital 3:35
Bybit hack forces ETH buying
Su argues the Bybit hack is mathematically bullish for ETH: Bybit must buy ETH to cover the $1.5B hole, the stolen ETH is effectively removed from liquid supply for months, and Bybit now carries a synthetic ETH short that grows if ETH rises. He expects a short/midterm squeeze potentially toward $4.5K in a few weeks, while remaining skeptical longer term.
ETH HIGH
zhusu Former CEO, Three Arrows Capital 5:35
ETFs benefit from onchain security fears
Su says the Bybit hack makes onchain self-custody and exchange security risk more frightening, which strengthens the bull case for regulated ETF products like IBIT and Ethereum ETFs because they offer a safer way to get crypto exposure.
IBIT ETHA MED
zhusu Former CEO, Three Arrows Capital 27:59
Solana memecoin activity remains resilient
Su says the Solana memecoin trenches are not dead: Pump.fun is still generating about $2M/day, future celebrity launches like Kanye may normalize more IP launches, and the Libra shock does not end the game, though capital is being extracted.
SOL MED
zhusu Former CEO, Three Arrows Capital 41:53
China and Hong Kong markets strong
Su notes that China and Hong Kong markets are really strong amid abundant global liquidity.
FXI EWH MED
zhusu Former CEO, Three Arrows Capital 42:29
Altcoin shorts risk powerful squeezes
Su sees altcoins showing real strength, especially hated VC alts that are heavily shorted with negative funding; when those squeezes happen it suggests market makers and projects believe the coins have bottomed.
ALTCOINS MED
zhusu Former CEO, Three Arrows Capital 43:30
Crowded VC alt shorts can squeeze
Su highlights hated VC coins that fell below or near their last VC rounds and had aggressive shorting/negative funding, naming Story (IP) and Berachain (BERA) as obvious short squeezes as they recovered from depressed levels.
IP BERA MED
zhusu Former CEO, Three Arrows Capital 45:51
KAITO has organic social utility
Su says he bought Kaito at $1 and prefers it to FriendTech because it is a social layer on top of normal Twitter behavior and has real utility for projects/people to promote products, making it less of a closed bubble.
KAITO MED
zhusu Former CEO, Three Arrows Capital 51:05
Aptos ecosystem hard to build
Su says he is not recommending Aptos despite the CTO/mindshare push, because he thinks it will not be easy to build out its ecosystem.
APT MED
zhusu Former CEO, Three Arrows Capital 52:07
New L1 narratives still attract buyers
Su thinks the market still wants to buy new L1s because institutional investors believe the fourth-generation blockchain narrative after Solana outperformed Ethereum, and completely new VM/architecture stories can capture imagination and attract Web2 devs.
New L1s MED
zhusu Former CEO, Three Arrows Capital 52:43
SUI bullish on Move ecosystem
Su says he became very bullish on SUI around 50 cents because it is part of the Move ecosystem, many Solana developers deploy on it, and it fits the new computing paradigm that the market rewards.
SUI MED
zhusu Former CEO, Three Arrows Capital 62:04
ETHBTC looks good here
Su says he has repeatedly tweeted that ETHBTC looks good here over the past year, implying the ETH/BTC ratio is bottoming and the relative ETH trade is attractive.
ETHBTC MED
zhusu Former CEO, Three Arrows Capital 64:52
MKR benefits from rate spread
Su says Maker is interesting and he is pretty bullish if they implement an interest-rate spread that lets the protocol earn money, though he notes this may be consensus.
SKY MED
zhusu Former CEO, Three Arrows Capital 71:24
Memecoins stay but rotate constantly
Su says memecoins are here to stay as a category, but individual memecoins are like NFTs/fast fashion: attention rotates, new coins replace old ones, and investors should not over-allocate to any single one.
Meme coins MED
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This Steady Lads Podcast video, published February 23, 2025, features zhusu discussing ETH, IBIT, ETHA, SOL, FXI, EWH, ALTCOINS, IP, BERA, KAITO, APT, New L1s, SUI, ETHBTC, SKY, Meme coins. 13 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: zhusu  · Tickers: ETH, IBIT, ETHA, SOL, FXI, EWH, ALTCOINS, IP, BERA, KAITO, APT, New L1s, SUI, ETHBTC, SKY, Meme coins