Insight: Trump Appears to Still Favor a 'Pressure-First' Strategy

April 2nd: Per the Financial Times, Gulf states are weighing a new oil pipeline to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.

On April 2nd, per Onchain Lens data, STO surged over 200% in 24 hours. The newly created wallet 0x2c2c withdrew 11.76 million STO (valued at $2.94 million) from Binance. Its current position is worth $6.99 million, posting a $4.05 million floating profit in less than 24 hours.

On April 2nd, Wormhole released a statement on X regarding the Drift Protocol exploit incident. The statement confirmed that Wormhole user assets are not currently at risk, and its cross-chain bridge functionality remains operational. That said, some cross-chain transfers may face delays due to a built-in security mechanism targeting Solana. Wormhole’s core contributors have been in contact with the Solana ecosystem team and will continue providing support as needed.

On April 2, Cryptopolitan reports that the Russian government has submitted a bill to the State Duma proposing criminal penalties for illegal cryptocurrency mining. Offenders could face a maximum fine of 2 million rubles (roughly $25,000) and up to five years in prison. Currently, around 50,000 individuals and entities are engaged in mining, but fewer than 1,500 are registered. Separately, Russia has expanded its mining ban to 13 regions—including the Siberian Republic of Buryatia and Trans-Baikal Territory—with the ban set to remain in place through 2031. The Moscow Region’s energy minister has also proposed a ban on mining in Moscow and the Moscow Region, noting local mining consumes about 1 gigawatt of electricity without making a significant contribution to the regional economy. Russia had previously legalized cryptocurrency mining by the end of 2024, requiring operators to register with the Federal Tax Service and pay taxes as mandated by law.

April 2nd — Per Farside Investors monitoring, U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded a net outflow of $173.7 million yesterday (April 1st). Key breakdown: IBIT saw $86.5 million in net outflows, while FBTC posted $78.6 million. For Ethereum ETFs, total net outflows hit $7.1 million; ETHA alone had a net outflow of $32.3 million.

On April 2nd, per HyperInsight monitoring, Ethereum dropped to the "Liquidation Buddy" price ($2049.15), prompting the entity to slash its holdings again. Just two hours earlier, amid a sharp market selloff triggered by Trump’s speech, the "Liquidation Buddy" was still buying the dip. As of press time, the "Liquidation Buddy" has reduced its 25x leveraged Ethereum long positions to 7,200 coins.