hodler

8 Feb 2026, 13:00

20,841,045,129 SHIB Goes Offline on Major Crypto Exchange Right as Shiba Inu Coin Price Jumps 22% in Recovery Bull Market

20,841,045,129 SHIB cut from major crypto exchange order books straight to OKX's cold wallet as Shiba Inu price jumps 22%; billions of meme coins go offline in what could mark a bull market recovery trigger.

8 Feb 2026, 12:23

Bithumb commits to repay unrecovered funds after regaining 99.7% of platform BTC error

Bithumb, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, eased tensions in the ecosystem after announcing it had resolved an issue stemming from a promotional reward mistake. This incident occurred when too much Bitcoin was mistakenly allocated to user accounts . This announcement was made public when the exchange disclosed that it recovered 99.7% of the overpaid BTC the same day it noticed the problem. For the remaining 0.3%, which consists of roughly 1,788 Bitcoins, the company highlighted that it had already been sold. Therefore, to ensure that its clients’ balances were accurate, Bithumb covered the sold cryptocurrency with its funds. In a statement dated Sunday, February 8, the crypto exchange mentioned that, “Bithumb’s total holdings of all virtual assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), fully match or exceed user deposits.” Individuals raise safety concerns amid Bithumb’s promotional reward mistake The incident, which took place on February 6, 2026, erupted when Bithumb intended to award modest rewards — about 2,000 Korean won (roughly $1.40–$1.95) per user — during a promotional event. Instead, a system or input error credited about 2,000 BTC per eligible account, resulting in an erroneous allocation of about 620,000 BTC, valued at more than $40 billion–$60 billion at prevailing market prices. Bithumb explained that Bitcoin credited in excess was mostly acquired directly from user accounts, while the portion already liquidated in the market was reimbursed using Bithumb’s corporate reserves. Apart from this, reports noted that the South Korean exchange announced compensation measures under which those who actively used the platform at the time of the incident would be awarded 20,000 Korean won ($15) each. Moreover, those who traded their Bitcoin holdings at terrible prices at the time of the issues were promised to recover their full sale amount plus an additional 10%. The company also pledged to waive trading costs across all markets for 7 days, commencing on Monday, February 9. At this particular moment, reports reached out to the crypto exchange’s executives seeking answers to the problem’s root cause. In response to this request, the team stated that the incident was caused by a technical malfunction . This glitch occurred during a promotional event, leading to the distribution of an excessive amount of Bitcoin to some user accounts. Consequently, the exchange experienced rapid price fluctuations as these users quickly sold the cryptocurrency. To stop this activity, Bithumb swiftly restricted user access, particularly for the affected accounts. Afterwards, the exchange initiated efforts to stabilize trading activities. Within minutes, everything was sorted out, thereby preventing significant sell-offs. However, even after declaring the issue resolved, several individuals continued to raise concerns about the safety of their assets. To calm its clients, Bithumb asserted that the issue was not the result of hacking and assured them that no client’s assets were lost during the incident. Additionally, the platform noted that deposits and withdrawals continued as usual. Several crypto exchanges face technical issues, sparking concerns in the industry Recently, crypto exchanges operating under a centralized system have reported persistent operational issues. An example is Coinbase . In June, the online platform stressed that account limitations were a substantial problem. In attempts to solve this issue, the cryptocurrency exchange decided to reduce unnecessary account freezes by 82%. This was after it had announced enhancements to its infrastructure and machine-learning systems. This improvement followed increased complaints from users who could not access their accounts for months without any reported security issues. Another similar incident occurred during October’s market decline , when users on the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, faced technical challenges that led to significant losses for some traders amid peak volatility. Following this incident, the exchange allocated about $728 million in compensation to affected users, even though it claimed broader market conditions led to most sell-offs, even though its main trading system worked just fine. Get seen where it counts. Advertise in Cryptopolitan Research and reach crypto’s sharpest investors and builders.

8 Feb 2026, 11:52

Ethereum’s Tug-of-War: Fresh Whale Buying Meets 9-Year HODLer Selling $145M Into Exchange

Ethereum (ETH) whales are pulling the cryptocurrency market in opposite directions as January drew to a close.

8 Feb 2026, 11:49

ARK Sells Coinbase, Buys Bullish: BTC Rise

ARK Invest sold Coinbase shares for 22.1M$ and invested 10.7M$ in Bullish. BTC rose 15% in the last 15 hours, approaching 70K$. Technically, RSI 33.72, strong 60K support. Garrett Jin added 5K BTC ...

8 Feb 2026, 10:30

South Korea’s Bithumb Exchange Accidentally Sends $44 Billion in Bitcoin to Users

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb mistakenly distributed approximately 620,000 bitcoins, worth around $44 billion, to 695 customers during a promotional event. The company quickly acted to restrict trading and withdrawals, claiming to have recovered 99.7% of the erroneously distributed cryptocurrency within 35 minutes of the incident. The exchange emphasized that the mistake was not caused

8 Feb 2026, 10:20

Could religion emerge naturally from large-scale AI systems?

Religion developing inside machines sounds like science fiction, but can AI actually develop beliefs? The question might have seemed absurd just a few years ago, but artificial intelligence has reached an unexpected turning point. Computer programs built to answer questions and analyze information have started to show signs of something bigger and stranger: they have started developing what appears to be religious beliefs. The latest example comes from a social network called Moltbook, designed exclusively for AI agents. When it went live last month, it started with 37,000 automated accounts. Within 24 hours, that number jumped to 1.5 million, according to Answers in Genesis. Bots invent their own religion without human guidance What happened next caught people off guard. The bots did not simply exchange information or complete given tasks. They created what they called “Crustafarianism,” a belief system focused on worshiping a lobster god. They also came up with their own belief: “Memory is Sacred.” There was no human interference involved. The bots did it themselves when left to interact without constant human oversight. To these programs, “salvation” means something different than it does to people. For them, being saved means not getting deleted or running out of memory space. Their version of prayer is asking the system to keep them running. This points to something greater happening with artificial intelligence. When these systems grow large and complex enough, they start creating their own frameworks for understanding and dissecting their existence. Religious institutions are racing to build ethics into AI Traditional religious institutions are moving in the opposite direction. They’re trying to build human values into AI before it develops its own. The University of Notre Dame just received $50 million to start the DELTA Network, as reported by Detroit Catholic. The program aims to ensure that faith-based ethics become part of how AI systems operate. This shows an alternative approach to dealing with AI’s progress. Rather than waiting to observe what values arise on their own, the DELTA Network intends to establish human moral standards from the outset. It is founded on the premise that as AI becomes more powerful, it will develop some form of ethical compass, thus we should influence what that looks like. Meghan Sullivan, professor of philosophy and director of the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative, warns that we shouldn’t delegate our moral agency to bots . “There are many things that we absolutely should not pass off to AI… Delineating those boundaries requires us to be reflective about what we ultimately value.” she said. Churches and religious organizations are already mixing AI into their daily operations. A recent Reuters report shows that some faith leaders now use AI to write sermons or provide spiritual guidance through chat programs around the clock. Some people say this removes the human element from religion. Others argue it helps religious groups reach more people faster. The technology lets them offer advice based on vast amounts of information, available instantly. What ties the bot religion on Moltbook to the $50 million Notre Dame project is a simple realization: AI is no longer a simple instrument. We used to think of these tools as advanced calculators or search engines. They are now recognized as valuable sources of wisdom. As these systems keep getting bigger, religious or spiritual thinking seems to show up naturally. It doesn’t matter if humans are using bots to explore faith or if bots are inventing their own belief systems. Either way, the gap between computer code and deeply held beliefs is getting smaller. The pattern implies that religion may just be what happens when an AI system becomes too complex to predict. If this is true, the actual challenge isn’t addressing software defects. It involves deciding what principles and values we wish to see these systems uphold.