BREAKING: The exploiter tied to Drift Protocol has accumulated 130,262 ETH valued at about $267 million, materially lifting overall market trading volume.

ChainCatcher reports that Hyperinsight data shows the combined unrealized loss on two addresses linked to Abraxas Capital—currently the largest oil holder on Hyperliquid—has widened to $9.7 million. The wallets continued adding to short exposure around lows overnight and into early morning. Total crude oil exposure across Brent and WTI now stands at $159 million, including: a 5x BRENTOIL short worth $102 million with an average entry price of about $103; and a 5x WTIOIL short worth $56.99 million with an average entry price of about $98.60.

Huo Mars Finance cited DefiLlama data dated April 2 showing that total fees across perpetual DEXs have been trending lower in line with the broader market downturn. Even as the overall fee pool shrank, Hyperliquid continued to gain ground and now captures 50% of all Perp DEX fees. HIP3 commodities and stocks currently account for 40% of Hyperliquid's trading volume.

Huo Xing Finance said April 2, citing Hyperinsight monitoring, that the Iran-U.S. situation continues to push oil prices higher. On Hyperliquid, the BRENTOIL (Brent Crude) contract briefly jumped above $109. If prices extend past $110, the wallet labeled "Loracle, Hyperliquid Early Contributor" (0x8def…) could face a partial liquidation. The whale is currently short Brent crude with a position valued at $5.18 million, entered at an average price of $109. Its liquidation price is $111, making it the onchain position closest to being liquidated. Hyperinsight also flagged the largest long position near liquidation: wallet 0x965… has a liquidation price of $104.8 and a position size of $4.538 million. Hyperinsight noted this wallet is heavily underwater on an S&P 500 short and does not have enough margin to support its isolated BRENTOIL long.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies Inc., backed by Tom Lee, added another 45,000 ETH worth about $95 million, stepping up its year-long Ethereum accumulation campaign. Arkham Intelligence data shows the purchase was recorded on Wednesday, April 1, across two transfers: 20,000 ETH valued at $42.36 million and 25,000 ETH valued at $52.94 million. The company has positioned the strategy as an effort to ultimately control 5% of Ethereum's total supply. The buying has continued even as ETH has fallen from the $3,000 range to around the low-$2,000s, with Bitmine also expanding its staking activity alongside spot accumulation. In a separate update, the firm staked an additional 167,578 ETH worth roughly $340 million on March 31, lifting its total staked reserve to more than 3.3 million ETH—close to $7 billion committed to Ethereum's proof-of-stake network. Because staked ETH is not readily available for sale, large-scale staking can reduce tradable supply and curb near-term sell-side pressure, while also slowing the pace at which liquidity can return during market stress. Since the start of 2026, Bitmine has accelerated purchases. In the last week of March alone, it bought more than 71,179 ETH worth $142 million. The firm now holds about 4.7 million ETH valued at over $9.5 billion, roughly 3.9% of total Ethereum supply, narrowing the gap to its stated 5% target. Bitmine's backers include ARK Invest, Founders Fund, Pantera, and Galaxy Digital. Market reaction was mixed. BMNR shares slipped 0.51% to $19.68 in the latest session despite the accumulation headlines. ETH traded just above $2,100, testing resistance near $2,150 after oscillating between roughly $2,000 and $2,100 in recent weeks. Technically, resistance is concentrated in the $2,100–$2,150 zone. A break higher could open the door to a move beyond $2,200. On the downside, $2,000 remains the key support; a decisive breakdown could put a retest below $1,900 back in play.

Ethereum's onchain activity is edging toward historic highs, according to analytics firm Santiment, which says the network is seeing more than 788,000 active addresses and over 255,000 newly created addresses per day. In an update posted on April 1, 2026, Santiment reported that Ethereum recorded over 788,000 addresses interacting with the network each day, a level the firm described as near an all-time high. At the time of the statement, ETH was trading around $2,130. The April 1 reading follows earlier data pointing to sustained engagement. A Santiment insight published March 3, 2026 put the 30-day average at 837.2K active ETH addresses per day, indicating elevated usage has persisted for at least a month. Crypto Economy's English-language coverage echoed the April 1 figures and embedded the original Santiment post. New wallet creation has also remained elevated. Santiment said more than 255,000 new Ethereum addresses are being created daily; on March 3, the firm cited a 30-day average of 284.8K new addresses per day. While new address growth is often used as a proxy for fresh participation, address counts do not equal unique users since individuals can create multiple wallets. The metric is typically viewed as a signal of onchain demand rather than a direct measure of new entrants. The activity uptick stands out against a cautious market backdrop. The crypto Fear and Greed Index is at 12, in "Extreme Fear" territory, suggesting network usage may be diverging from broader sentiment. At press time, ETH was changing hands at about $2,049.85, with a market capitalization near $247.5 billion and 24-hour trading volume around $20.9 billion. The token was down roughly 4.2% over the prior 24 hours. Ethereum's total value locked across DeFi was estimated at approximately $108.16 billion, highlighting the scale of capital deployed on the network despite softer pricing. Market participants often track address activity as a forward-looking gauge of network health. A sustained rise in both active and new addresses during flat or declining price action can point to demand building independently of speculative momentum. Santiment's characterization of "near all-time highs" has not been independently verified against a full historical dataset. The address surge also comes as broader crypto markets show heightened hedging. K33 Research has said leveraged short exposure in Bitcoin ETFs is near record highs, adding complexity to the contrast between Ethereum's onchain signals and wider market positioning. Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency and digital asset markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making decisions.

ME News reported that on April 2 (UTC+8), cross-chain stablecoin protocol USDT0 said it paused its cross-chain communication network on Solana in response to the security incident involving Solana's Drift, taking action within 90 minutes. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino reposted the update and commended USDT0's handling of the situation, saying that when security vulnerabilities emerge, users and institutions tend to seek out solutions that offer protection. Earlier, Foresight News noted that ZachXBT criticized Circle for not freezing USDC transfers quickly during the Drift attack. (Source: Foresight News)

A major exploit hit Drift Protocol on April 1, 2026, during U.S. business hours, draining as much as $285 million and triggering a rapid collapse in liquidity. Total value locked (TVL) fell from $311.38 million to $23.49 million within hours, a 92.5% plunge. On-chain activity shows the attacker quickly consolidated funds and converted assets into USDC and SOL. The USDC was then bridged from Solana to Ethereum over several hours through Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP). On-chain investigator ZachXBT tracked the movement in real time and said Circle did not intervene. CCTP operates by burning USDC on the source chain and minting it on the destination chain. Despite the nine-figure flow tied to the exploit, transfers proceeded without a pause, freeze, or manual review. ZachXBT argued this points to inadequate protocol-level monitoring, noting the transfers were unusually large and fast yet still cleared. The episode is drawing comparisons to Circle's recent wallet actions. ZachXBT said Circle froze more than 16 business-linked wallets last week by mistake, and those wallets are still being unfrozen. Market participants questioned the inconsistency, with some arguing that if internal wallets can be frozen, similar safeguards should have been able to disrupt nine-figure exploit flows routed through CCTP. Related: DeFi Hacks Top $137M in Early 2026 as Security Failures Mount Disclaimer: This content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Coin Edition is not responsible for losses arising from the use of any referenced content, products, or services. Readers should exercise caution before taking any action related to the company.

Drift Protocol, a widely used DeFi platform on Solana, has been hit by an exploit that drained more than $285 million after an attacker obtained control of critical administrative permissions. Blockchain security firm Slowmist said the attack began around 4 PM UTC, with an initial transfer of about $155 million in JLP tokens pulled from a Drift vault. Losses later climbed above $285 million, erasing more than half of the protocol's total value locked. On-chain activity indicates the attacker moved the proceeds cross-chain. Roughly 129,000 ETH, valued at about $270.9 million, was bridged from Solana to Ethereum using CCTP TokenMessengerMinterV2. The funds were split across multiple wallets, including transfers of 55.4K ETH, 25.7K ETH, 24.9K ETH, and 23.1K ETH, a pattern consistent with efforts to reduce tracing risk. Prior to bridging, the exploiter swapped assets into USDC via Jupiter, then converted the USDC into ETH. The operation appeared to involve significant preparation. Three weeks before the exploit, the attacker created a token on Solana called CarbonVote Token and seeded it with $500 of liquidity. By repeatedly wash trading, the actor established an artificial but stable price history intended to mislead oracle systems. Drift said the attacker used a technique involving durable nonces and presigned transactions, which can be executed at a later time, enabling unauthorized control to be established without immediate detection. Multiple multisig signers were also reportedly compromised, with indications pointing to targeted social engineering. Following the incident, DRIFT slid sharply, falling as much as 42% over the day to around $0.041. Earlier pricing in the move showed the token down 37% to $0.048. Drift has suspended deposits and withdrawals and warned users not to interact with the platform while the team works with security firms, bridges, exchanges, and law enforcement to trace and freeze the stolen assets. A detailed postmortem is expected in the coming days.