Author: BlackMask Financial

• Researchers led by Shi Zhengli at the Wuhan Institute of Virology discovered a new coronavirus, HKU5-CoV-2, that can infect humans like SARS-CoV-2, according to a study published in the journal Cell.
• The new virus, HKU5-CoV-2, uses the ACE2 receptor, similar to SARS-CoV-2, and carries a high risk for animal-to-human transmission.
• Shi Zhengli’s research indicates that HKU5-CoV-2 could have better adaptation to human cells and is more dangerous than its predecessor.
• The findings fuel ongoing debates about the origins of COVID-19, with Shi Zhengli and other scientists claiming the virus emerged naturally, although no evidence for this natural origin has been provided.

The virus, HKU5-CoV-2, does not enter human cells as readily as SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, the scientists reported in the journal Cell. However, they found that the bat virus uses the same cell-surface protein, ACE2, as SARS-CoV-2 to help it enter human cells. In lab experiments, HKU5-CoV-2 infected human cells with high ACE2 levels in test tubes and in models of human intestines and airways. In further experiments, the researchers identified antibodies and antiviral drugs that are able to target the bat virus. Asked about concerns raised by the report of another pandemic resulting from this new virus, Dr Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, called the reaction to the study “overblown. He said there is a lot of immunity in the population to similar COVID-19 and SARS viruses compared with 2019. The study itself noted that the virus has significantly less binding affinity than SARS-CoV-2.

Oil fell after the breach of a key technical level accelerated losses driven by the possibility of increased flows from Iraq, weakening the prospects of supply constraints that have gripped the market recently. West Texas Intermediate slid more than 2% to trade below $71 a barrel, with the drop deepening after prices dipped below their 100-day moving average of about $71.51. The decline puts oil at risk of its fifth straight weekly loss, which would be the longest streak in more than a year.Crude has been trapped in a roughly $5 range for the past three weeks because of an uncertain outlook for supply, including increasing expectations that OPEC+ will delay a planned production increase and a drone attack that threatened Kazakh pipeline flows. At the same time, US President Donald Trump’s rapid-fire tariff actions and other policy decisions have dimmed the outlook for demand and boosted US consumers’ expectations for long-term inflation.

OPEC+ postponing its 120,000 barrel-a-day output hike — a move delegates are flagging as a possibility — would mark the fourth time the group delayed plans to revive production halted in 2022. At present, the alliance aims to restore a total of 2.2 million barrels a day in monthly increments, starting in April. NN: OPEC will not increase production. I n fact they are considering further production cuts

“Given prices in the mid-$70s, we continue to anticipate that the producer group postpones the beginning of bringing back withheld oil supply to market,” Citigroup Inc. analysts, including Eric Lee, wrote in a note. “The decision to bring back more oil to market might only come if the US exerts more sanctions pressure on Iran amid potential negotiations.” NN: Iran is the wild card. I suspect 3 MBD of Iranian oil will soon be embargoed.

Bybit Hacked For More Than $1.4 Billion in Biggest Crypto Heist of All Time

• Crypto prices dropped on Friday, with Bitcoin falling to nearly $97,000 and Ether dipping below $2,700 due to a security incident at Bybit.
• Bybit confirmed a hacker stole over $1.46 billion worth of cryptocurrency from its ETH cold wallet, marking this incident as the largest cryptocurrency hack ever.
• Bybit stated that all other cold wallets are secure, and its CEO assured that all client assets are backed 1 to 1 despite the loss.
• A suspicious $1.4 billion ETH outflow prompted the security incident investigation by Bybit’s team and external experts.

The crypto market is reeling after Bybit suffered the largest hack in industry history, with over $1.4 billion in Ethereum (ETH) and staked Ethereum (stETH) drained from the exchange.

The attack has triggered a wave of liquidations, particularly in Ethereum futures markets, as panic sets in.

According to CoinGlass, ETH futures traders saw $76 million in liquidations over the past four hours, with $43 million coming from short positions.

In the past 24 hours, 183,176 traders were liquidated, bringing the total liquidation amount to $499.23 million.

Ethereum has dropped 3% in the past hour, now trading at $2,727, while Bitcoin is down 1% to $98,091.

Bybit co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou confirmed the attack in a post on X (formerly Twitter), explaining that a planned transfer was manipulated, allowing hackers to drain the exchange’s ETH cold wallet.

“However, the signing message was to change the smart contract logic of our ETH cold wallet,” Zhou said. “[The] hacker took control of the specific ETH cold wallet we signed and transferred all ETH in the cold wallet to this unidentified address.” Zhou reassured customers that Bybit remains solvent, despite the loss.

Funds are moving — hackers splitting ETH into 39 wallets

Blockchain security researcher ZachXBT was the first to notice the suspicious outflows, stating in his Telegram channel that a source had confirmed to him that Bybit was hacked.

The stolen ETH is being split between 39 different addresses, likely an attempt by the hacker to obscure the funds and avoid detection.

Arkham launches $50,000 bounty

On-chain intelligence firm Arkham announced a new bounty to identify the hacker, offering 50,000 ARKM tokens as a reward for information.

“We’ve created & funded a bounty to help identify the person or organization behind today’s >$1B Bybit hack,” Arkham posted on X. “Submissions to this bounty will be shared with the Bybit team to support their investigation.”

The biggest crypto hacks in history

The cryptocurrency industry has witnessed several major security breaches over the years, with Bybit’s $1.4 billion exploit now ranking as the largest ever.

In March 2022, a critical exploit in Axie Infinity’s Ronin Network led to a $625 million loss in ETH and USDC. Attackers compromised validators, making it one of the largest DeFi hacks in history.

In 2014, Mt. Gox Exchange, once handling 70% of all Bitcoin transactions, Mt. Gox collapsed in 2014 after hackers stole 850,000 BTC — worth $460 million at the time.

In August 2022, hackers stole $611 million in crypto from Poly Network by exploiting a smart contract vulnerability. In a twist, the attacker later returned most of the funds.

 

Russian Security Council Deputy Secretary Grigory Molchanov warned on Friday that NATO poses a growing threat to Russia’s critical port infrastructure, suggesting the alliance may be drafting strategic documents for potential military operations on the country’s seabed. The deputy secretary indicated that NATO is believed to be considering maritime transport, major oil terminals, and rail crossings for fuel delivery as potential targets for future attacks. Molchanov noted that amid Russia’s ongoing special military operation, the country has observed an increase in threat to its military security, particularly due to the Ukrainian armed forces’ larger use of unmanned attack boats in the Black Sea.

Russia launched 160 drones overnight

Ukrainian Air Force announced on Friday in a post on Telegram that the Russian army launched 160 drones and two ballistic missiles overnight. “The air attack was repelled by aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare units and mobile fire groups,” the Ukrainian military said, detailing that out of the total number, 87 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were shot, while 70 of them failed to reach their targets. The regions affected by the strike were Odessa, Kiev, Poltava and Kharkiv.

Experts from Yale University have uncovered a new, concerning condition linked to the COVID-19 vaccines. Dubbed “Post-Vaccination Syndrome” (PVS), it not only comes with a host of uncomfortable symptoms—but it also causes persistent biological changes years after injection. 

Not only that, the scientists also identified a troubling connection between PVS and the reactivation of a virus known as Epstein-Barr, a dormant agent that resides in most people and causes flu-like symptoms.

“This work is still in its early stages, and we need to validate these findings,” Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, the study’s author, said. “But this is giving us some hope that there may be something that we can use to treat PVS down the road.”

While the study has not been published in its entirety, its initial findings have been enough to scare and anger netizens.

NN: I published this report to make you aware of some major misinformation.  Yale  studies have been extremely anti-covid vaccine.  data has been gleamed from very small populstios.  The pre publication studies often ses press releases   without peer review.  containing some very sketchy science. The link between PBS and people who receive the covid vaccine has never been made.  In fact the instances are the same in people who never received the covid vaccine.  So I warn you that a lot of medical conditions that people experience in the journey of life are now being blamed on the covid vaccine and it’s not valid.

• President Trump stated the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would be filled up quickly, as it is currently at a low level.
• The Biden administration previously released substantial amounts of oil from the SPR to manage gasoline prices.
• Trump also promised tax cuts for oil and gas producers, but drillers are hesitant to increase production without higher global prices.

The U.S. Administration will fill up fast the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), President Donald Trump said at an investment conference in Miami.“We’ll fill it up fast, but it’s at the lowest level. When we made the transition, it was at the lowest level in history, ever recorded,” President Trump said.  “They put it all out because they thought they could keep gasoline prices down a little bit, just go past the election, and after that, they didn’t care,” the President added, criticizing Joe Biden’s administration for failing to curb the hikes in gasoline prices.  “And it didn’t work because they didn’t get elected. I got elected, but the price of gasoline still rose over 35 percent,” President Trump said.  The SPR needs to be refilled as the strategic reserve plays a critical role in stabilizing the U.S. market during global supply disruptions.  The Biden administration released more than 180 million barrels of oil from the SPR starting in 2021, amid high gasoline prices. The Department of Treasury claims that these releases, along with coordinated international efforts, helped reduce gasoline prices by up to 40 cents per gallon in 2022. The SPR currently houses 395 million barrels of crude—a figure that is about 250 million barrels less than oil in the SPR at the beginning of Joe Biden’s term in office. The Reserve’s total capacity is 714 million barrels of crude. President Trump will enlist the help of Republicans in Congress to reduce the debt burden on households and companies, notably oil and gas producers, whom he will allow to expense 100% of capital spending.  Oil drillers, however, have signaled they had no immediate plans to boost production any further, unless global prices improved enough to motivate such a move.

Summary of Weekly Petroleum Data for the week ending February 14, 2025

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) increased by 4.6 million barrels from the previous week. At 432.5 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 3% below the five year average for this time of year

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.4 million barrels per day during the week ending February 14, 2025, which was 15 thousand barrels per day less than the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 84.9% of their operable capacity last week. Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.2 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased last week, averaging 4.7 million barrels per day.U.S. crude oil imports averaged 5.8 million barrels per day last week, decreased by 488 thousand barrels per day from the previous week. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.4 million barrels per day, 0.6% less than the same four-week period last year. Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 346 thousand barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 267 thousand
barrels per day. Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 0.2 million barrels from last week and are 1% below the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories increased, while blending
components inventories decreased last week. Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 2.1 million barrels last week and are about 12% below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories decreased by 3.6 million barrels from last week and are slightly
below the five year average for this time of year. Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 0.2 million barrels last week.Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.4 million barrels a day, up by
3.7% from the same period last year. Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.4 million barrels a day, up by 0.4% from the same period last year. Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 4.3 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 14.2% from last year.

Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Thursday in a post on Facebook that Russian forces once again targeted Ukraine’s gas infrastructure, in a “massive attack.” Russian missiles and drones managed to damage production facilities, according to Galushchenko. “The goal of these criminal attacks is to stop the production of gas, which is necessary to ensure the domestic needs of citizens and centralized heating,” he said. The energy minister further added that the relevant authorities are working to stabilize the gas supply and eliminate the consequences of Russia’s offensive. “This is outright terrorism,” Galushchenko proclaimed.

• The European Union has approved its 16th package of sanctions against Russia, which includes bans on primary aluminum imports and the listing of 73 shadow fleet vessels.
• The sanctions package adds 48 individuals and 35 entities to the list, resulting in asset freezes and travel bans.
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated, ‘The EU is clamping down even harder on circumvention by targeting more vessels in Putin’s shadow fleet.’
• The package includes additional measures against Russian ports and airports to prevent circumventing the G7 price cap on oil.