Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest added $2 million in BitMine shares across its ETFs, Bitcoin retail investors and whales are moving in opposite directions. Meanwhile, the Balancer DAO has given the hacker behind the exploit until Saturday to return the stolen funds for a bounty.

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest adds BitMine shares as it offloads $30M in Tesla stock

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest has increased its exposure to Tom Lee’s Ether treasury firm BitMine while reducing its position in Tesla.

According to the firm’s daily trading disclosures dated Friday, ARK purchased a combined 48,454 shares of BitMine (worth around $2 million) across three of its exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) and the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW).

Wood’s investment funds have been increasing their exposure to BitMine since it started accumulating Ether (ETH) as a treasury asset in April.

BitMine shares were up 7.65% on the day to reach $40.23 in after-hours trading, according to Google Finance. The stock has gained a whopping 415% since the beginning of the year.

Bitcoin whale and retail ‘major divergence’ is a warning sign: Santiment

Bitcoin retail investors are snapping up Bitcoin as whales sell off, a pattern that could signal trouble for the asset’s price if history is any guide, according to sentiment platform Santiment.

However, other crypto analysts are divided on how the coming weeks will unfold for Bitcoin.

“Historically, prices tend to follow the direction of the whales, not retail,” Santiment said in a markets report on Saturday.

Santiment pointed out that since Oct. 12, Bitcoin whales — wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC — have sold approximately 32,500 Bitcoin. However, Santiment added that “small retail wallets have been aggressively buying the dip.”

Balancer makes last appeal to hacker behind $100M+ exploit

The Balancer Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) issued an onchain notice to the wallet holder behind an exploit this week that resulted in more than $100 million in digital assets being stolen.

In a Friday X post, Balancer posted a copy of the message it sent to the individual or group responsible for the incident tied to the platform’s V2 Composable Stable Pools. The decentralized exchange offered them until Saturday to return the funds in exchange for an unspecified bounty, or it would use “technical, onchain, and legal measures” to pursue matters.

“We understand that affected users are awaiting further updates,” Balancer said of the exploit. “We will continue to provide information as the investigation progresses.”

The exploit, which Balancer reported to its users on Monday, resulted in more than $100 million worth of staked Ether (ETH) — including StakeWise Staked ETH (OSETH), Wrapped Ether (WETH) and Lido wstETH (wSTETH) — being moved to a newly created wallet. The hack drew attention to the audits of the exchange’s smart contracts after reports showed four security companies had reviewed them.