The Daily: Vana secures investment from YZi Labs as CZ becomes advisor, Infini hacked for $49 million and more

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.I hope you had a good weekend, folks. Prices fell this morning as the memecoin frenzy continues to cool and crypto participants digest Bybit's record-breaking exploit, but we'll still do our best to brighten up your Monday.In today's newsletter, YZi Labs invests in crypto-AI startup Vana, stablecoin neobank Infini gets hacked for $49 million, Bybit closes its $1.5 billion ether shortfall and more.Meanwhile, tokenized time platform Time.fun goes live on Solana following its Base debut.Let's get started.Vana secures investment from YZi Labs as CZ becomes advisorYZi Labs, formerly Binance Labs, has invested an undisclosed amount in crypto-AI startup Vana, which focuses on data ownership.As part of the deal, Binance co-founder and former CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao has joined Vana as an advisor through YZi Labs after taking a more active role in the venture firm following its rebrand. YZi Labs was the sole investor in Vana's strategic investment round, which closed in January 2025, Vana co-founder Anna Kazlauskas told The Block, declining to comment on the structure of the round or post-investment valuation.The investment comes shortly after Vana launched its mainnet and token last December, with VANA trading down 82% since at a market cap of around $192 million and a fully diluted valuation of $747 million.Vana's blockchain enables users to pool data into Data DAOs, where they earn rewards and retain ownership in AI models.Vana's other high-profile investors include Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures and Polychain Capital, having previously raised $25 million in funding rounds.Meanwhile, Zhao unveiled his crypto investment portfolio on Monday, with a 98.5% allocation to BNB and 1.3% to BTC.Infini exploited for $49 millionHong Kong-based stablecoin neobank and payments platform Infini suffered an attack that resulted in a loss of approximately $49 million.Security analysts confirmed the hack, noting that the amount was siphoned in USDC from a smart contract and sent to an address funded by crypto mixer Tornado Cash.The exploit occurred when the attacker abused compromised administrative privileges to change the smart contract settings and drain funds, which were later converted into ether.The specific contract address was created by the attacker and allegedly developed as part of the Infini project.Infini is investigating the breach, offering a bounty for the stolen funds return, assuring users that the incident was not due to a private key leak and that those impacted would be compensated.Bybit closes ether shortfallBybit CEO Ben Zhou confirmed that the platform has filled its ether shortfall, just days following the record $1.5 billion hack on the crypto exchange last week.Bybit later released an audited proof of reserves report to verify it has restored client assets on a 1:1 basis.To address the shortfall and maintain operations, Bybit secured emergency liquidity through short-term bridge loans from partners in the crypto industry, subsequently purchasing large amounts of ETH via OTC transactions to replenish its reserves.The hack, involving a manipulated multi-signature approval process, resulted in over 400,000 ETH plus other ether derivative tokens being stolen by the attackers, believed to be North Korea's Lazarus Group.Ethena raises $100 million in private token saleEthena Foundation, steward of the synthetic dollar protocol Ethena, raised $100 million in a private sale of ENA tokens to help build out a new chain for its ecosystem and institutional product iUSDe.The previously unannounced sale was completed in December at an average token price of just under $0.40, with investors including Franklin Templeton, Polychain, Pantera, Dragonfly and Fidelity's venture capital arm, F-Prime, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told The Block.Ethena's existing decentralized synthetic dollar, USDe, has grown to become the fourth-largest stablecoin, with a $5.9 billion circulating supply.Ethena's iUSDe is an attempt to export its staked USDe product, sUSDe, to legacy finance, including asset managers, ETFs, prime brokers, private credit funds and investment trusts.Strategy buys another $2 billion worth of bitcoinStrategy, formerly MicroStrategy, purchased an additional 20,356 BTC for $1.99 billion at an average price of $97,514 per bitcoin between Feb. 18 and Feb. 23, according to an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.The company now holds 499,096 BTC, worth over $47 billion, bought at an average price of $66,357 per bitcoin for a total cost of around $33.1 billion, according to co-founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor.The bitcoin acquisitions follow the completion of Strategy's latest $2 billion zero-coupon convertible note offering, without selling any additional shares of class A common stock under its at-the-market equity offering program during the period.In the next 24 hoursFederal Reserve Vice Chair Michael Barr will speak at 11:45 a.m. ET on Tuesday. U.S. FOMC member Thomas Barkin follows at 1 p.m.EigenLayer will unlock 1.29 million EIGEN tokens worth $2.2 million, 0.53% of its circulating supply.ETHDenver continues. AIBC EURASIA concludes in Dubai.Never miss a beat with The Block's daily digest of the most influential events happening across the digital asset ecosystem.Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.