The risky short bet was made in anticipation of Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade as Ether fell nearly 11% amid growing global trade concerns.
An anonymous cryptocurrency trader has accumulated almost $68 million in unrealized profit by shorting Ether amid its recent price decline.
According to blockchain data from Hypurrscan, the trader opened a 50x leveraged short position when Ether (ETH) was trading at $3,176, on Feb. 1. As of 9:06 am UTC on March 5, the position had almost $68 million in unrealized profit.
Shorting involves “borrowing” the underlying cryptocurrency from a broker, selling it at the current price, and then repurchasing it once the price falls — a strategy used by traders to bet on the price decline of an asset.
To round out Q2 2025, Coinbase is listing four new tokens: Newton (NEWT), Sonic (S), Subsquid (SQD), and POPCAT. The latter two are specifically available in the EU, where Coinbase recently obtained the MiCA license.
With the exception of Sonic, most of these listings had a strange impact on the token prices. These actions seem perfectly explainable, and Coinbase is continuing to build a diversified portfolio of available assets.
Coinbase’s Newest Listings
One of the major listings from this round was Newton Protocol’s NEWT token. The token launched earlier today with an airdrop on Binance Alpha.
Coibase has acted quickly to capture the high enthusiasm surrounding NEWT with a listing on the same date.
Newton (NEWT) is now live on https://t.co/CD3RBjtMAO & in the Coinbase iOS & Android apps with the Experimental label. Coinbase customers can log in to buy, sell, convert, send, receive or store these assets. https://t.co/676miKRrfh
Developed by Magic Labs, Newton Protocol is a crypto UX on-chain automation protocol powered by AI agents. It allows users to delegate complex, cross-chain actions to AI agents.
Over the past few months, Coinbase has seemingly accelerated its rate. Earlier this month, the US-based exchange listed PancakeSwap (CAKE) and Fartcoin – leading to a notable price impact.
Most recently, Coinbase received an MiCA license to enter the regulated EU market. As a part of its entry, the exchange has listed POPCAT and SQD for German residents.
The market impact of these listings was muted, as both tokens have been available on Coinbase in other regions. So, EU listing was highly priced-in.
Subsquid’s SQD token was also listed by Coinbase Global earlier this month, and now it’s available in the German market.
Regardless, the listing is a major boost for Subsquid’s ecosystem growth. The platform aims to power an open database network for AI agents, and increased availability can only help this goal.
Sonic saw notable corrections over the past week due to the high sell-off from airdrop recipients. However, the Coinbase listing has seen a sharp rebound in the altcoin’s price.
Sonic (S) Price Rebound After Coinbase Listing. Source: BeInCrypto
As per usual, Coinbase picked a scattershot of unrelated projects for its latest round of token listings. For example, NEWT and SQD both focus on AI, but they aim to use it in different ways.
At the moment, it doesn’t seem like Coinbase has any other big plans to change tactics for Q3. The exchange will undergo a systems upgrade next month, but it didn’t hint at any new features.
“After rigorous reviews, CoinEx will list PI (Pi) on March 18, 2025,” the exchange stated in its announcement.
With this latest listing, Pi Coin is now available on 12 exchanges, as per Coinranking data. Despite this expansion, the possibility of a Binance listing remains uncertain.
“The failure to get listed on Binance, despite 86% of the community voting in favor, raises serious concerns about public trust in the project,” a pioneer wrote on X.
Pioneers Demand Transparency on Pi Network’s Funding Sources
An investigation by one of Pi Network’s pioneers uncovered that SocialChain Inc., the company behind Pi Network, has received investments from three firms: 137 Ventures, Ulu Ventures, and Designer Fund. However, the investigation revealed a key issue: two of these investors have not included Pi Network in their official investment portfolios.
Additionally, none of these firms have disclosed the amount of money they have invested in Pi Network despite being forthcoming with investment details for other companies.
“Why is Pi Core Team keeping this under wraps? Pioneers deserve transparency. If Pi Network aims for long-term sustainability, the team must be more open about its financial backing and key partnerships,” the post read.
Notably, a previous lawsuit by former co-founder Vince McPhillip against Pi Network offers additional insight into the project’s funding methods. The complaint outlined a series of claims, including wrongful termination, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, and breach of fiduciary duty.
Nonetheless, it detailed that the project had raised funds by selling financial instruments called SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity).
According to the lawsuit, Pi Network sold SAFE agreements in September 2019 with a maximum valuation of $20 million. During this fundraising round, the project raised $500,000. A few months later, in February 2020, Pi Network conducted another fundraising round at the same $20 million valuation, raising an additional $300,000.
Despite these fundraising efforts, the lack of clear financial disclosure continues to fuel concerns within the Pi Network community.
This drop has pushed the coin further down the cryptocurrency rankings, with PI falling from 12th to 21st place on CoinGecko. While the broader cryptocurrency market has also faced a downturn, PI’s losses have been more pronounced. At press time, PI was trading at $1.1, down 16.5% in the past 24 hours.
Despite this, Pi Network’s community engagement remains vibrant, particularly through PiFest 2025. The event has attracted 100,000 registered sellers worldwide, including 49,000 active participants on the Map of Pi.
Social media posts highlight strong participation from communities in Vietnam, Indonesia, and beyond, where users exchange goods and services using PI tokens.
(@CoinbaseAssets) 
