Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, the Ethereum Foundation is shifting gears as Vitalik Buterin moves to a research-focused role, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou confirmed that around two-thirds of its funds stolen by Lazarus in February are currently still traceable, and Bitget crypto exchange rolled back accounts following “abnormal trading activity” in VOXEL-USDT perpetual futures contracts. Ethereum Foundation shifts focus to user experience, layer-1 scaling The Ethereum Foundation, the nonprofit organization developing the Ethereum ecosystem, is shifting its focus to user experience and layer-1 scaling challenges following its March leadership reshuffle. On April 21, the Ethereum Foundation co-executive director Tomasz Stańczak shared an X post detailing how the organization has changed since its change in leadership structure . Stańczak said the change aims to give Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin more time for research and exploration rather than dealing with day-to-day tasks and crisis management. “Each time Vitalik shares insights or communicates a direction, he accelerates major long‑term breakthroughs,” he wrote. Stańczak added that Buterin’s recent posts had advanced promising avenues and helped realign the community around the organization’s core values. On April 20, Buterin proposed a change in the Ethereum Virtual Machine’s (EVM) contract language to improve the efficiency and speed of the blockchain’s execution layer. Stańczak said that while Buterin’s proposals will “always carry weight,” they are supposed to start conversations and encourage progress in different research areas. The executive said the community can either refine or reject the ideas. Bybit CEO: Two-thirds of Lazarus-hacked funds remain traceable Crypto exchange Bybit co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou says more than two-thirds of the digital assets stolen from the platform in February by North Korea’s Lazarus Group still remain traceable. In an executive summary on hacked Bybit funds posted on X on April 21, Ben Zhou said that of the total $1.4 billion hacked, 68.6% “remains traceable,” 27.6% has “gone dark,” and 3.8% has been frozen. Around $1.2 billion worth of stolen crypto is still being tracked. Source: Lazarus Bounty The untraceable funds primarily flowed into mixers , then through bridges to peer-to-peer and over-the-counter platforms, he added. Zhou confirmed that 944 Bitcoin ( BTC ) worth around $90 million went through the Wasabi mixer Another 432,748 Ether ( ETH ), around 84% of the total worth roughly $1.21 billion, has been transferred from Ethereum to Bitcoin via THORChain. Around two-thirds of that — around $960 million worth of Ether — has been converted into 10,003 BTC across 35,772 wallets, he added. Around $17 million worth of Ether remains on the Ethereum blockchain across 12,490 wallets, Zhou reported. Bitget rolls back accounts after market irregularity in VOXEL-USDT perpetual futures contracts Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget detected “abnormal trading activity” in VOXEL-USDT perpetual futures contracts between 8:00 to 8:30 UTC on April 20 and is rolling back accounts impacted by the trading irregularity during the next 24 hours. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen told Cointelegraph that the issue was not platform-wide and involved funds traded between market participants and not the exchange itself. Chen added that all user funds are safe. The exchange is also issuing a compensation plan for traders affected by the market irregularity. Chen told Cointelegraph: “For any residual losses, Bitget is fully prepared to offer compensation. Our $300 million protection fund provides more than sufficient backing to support our users in such events, assuring that user assets remain secure.” The incident is the latest in a string of market irregularities impacting cryptocurrency exchanges and causing losses to users, including the Hyperliquid-Jelly memecoin market exploit in March 2025. VOXEL-USDT perpetual futures contract spikes by over 138% in a single day. Source: TradingView