Whale Sell-off Overwhelms Institutional Buying Pressure, Bitcoin Demand Remains Under Pressure

April 2: Moments after Donald Trump concluded his national address, Iran launched another barrage of missiles at Israel. (Kimchi)

**April 2nd: SlowMist’s Drift Hack Analysis** SlowMist’s breakdown of the Drift protocol hack shows that one week before the attack, Drift updated its multisig setup to a 2/5 threshold (1 existing signer + 4 new signers) and skipped implementing a timelock. The attacker exploited this gap to gain admin access, mint counterfeit CVT tokens, manipulate the oracle, disable security protocols, and siphon high-value assets from the liquidity pool. Stolen funds have since been consolidated into a single Ethereum address, holding roughly 105,969 ETH (valued at ~$226 million). SlowMist noted that tracking efforts for the funds are ongoing.

On April 2nd, on-chain sleuth ZachXBT accused Circle of failing to act promptly during the Drift attack. He noted that during U.S. trading hours, tens of millions of USDC were transferred from Solana to Ethereum via a cross-chain protocol—with no intervention for hours. He also stated the funds in question had been successfully transferred, adding Circle “once again took no action.” ZachXBT further pointed out Circle had previously mistakenly frozen over 16 business hot wallets, which are currently being gradually unfrozen. He called out Circle and its CEO Jeremy Allaire, saying their actions have negatively impacted the industry.

On April 2nd, AI Whale Watcher reported that a 2016 ETH "ancient whale"—with an average cost as low as $203.22—has sold $10.72 million worth of ETH and AAVE, effectively exiting Ethereum after holding the asset for nearly a decade. After a month of inactivity, the whale resumed activity yesterday, consolidating addresses at a high frequency before depositing 3,915 ETH and 24,000 AAVE into Kraken (likely for sale). Following the deposit, only 52 ETH remains in its on-chain holdings.

April 2nd: Per OnchainLens data, the whale wallet "pension-usdt.eth" has opened a new 20,000 ETH short position (3x leverage) and boosted its Bitcoin short position to 750 BTC (3x leverage), with a total position value of $92.4 million. Currently, its unrealized profit exceeds $1.6 million, while cumulative profit has topped $32 million.

April 2 (Tuesday) — U.S. President Trump declared in a national address Tuesday that military action against Iran has achieved a “rapid and decisive victory,” with core objectives nearly complete. He explicitly warned more “heavy blows” will hit Iran in the next 2-3 weeks but did not mention a ceasefire or clear exit strategy—triggering sharp market volatility. In energy markets: Trump threatened to target Iran’s energy infrastructure if no agreement is reached, while reiterating other countries should secure the Strait of Hormuz to ensure navigation. That lifted supply disruption fears sharply. WTI crude surged above $103/bbl, Brent topped $102/bbl—both up over 4% intraday—pushing energy risk premiums higher quickly. Financial markets faced concurrent pressure: U.S. stock futures slipped, with S&P 500 futures down ~0.5%; Asia-Pacific equities reversed earlier gains. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield climbed to ~4.35%, and Japanese 30-year yield rose—reflecting market repricing of