A certain whale trader with a $45 million position took a bearish bet on the "ETH/BTC" exchange rate, resulting in a $200,000 profit.

March 17th. Since this Monday, the crypto market has rebounded sharply, with Bitcoin and Ethereum hitting their highest levels since February 5th. Amid uncertainty over Iran and volatile macro liquidity, this rally is likely more of a technical bounce. BlockBeats’ recap of the latest trends follows: Over the weekend, technical analysts led by Peter Brandt and Ali Charts were the first to “flip bullish,” issuing clear positive calls on crypto. Brandt has posted charts multiple times since March 10th, signaling a short-term Bitcoin uptrend. Yesterday, he updated his view, noting Ethereum has formed a “small daily bottom” in a long-term historical support zone—suggesting it could surge toward $2,600. Meanwhile, Ali Charts flagged the rebound ahead of time. At 2 a.m. Beijing time on Monday, he made a rare statement that Bitcoin’s rebound probability was “100%.” Yesterday, he added his Ethereum take: its super-trend indicator “has flipped from sell to buy for the first time since l

March 17th — Huobi HTX has rolled out a limited-time leveraged trading interest cashback event for March, per an official announcement. The event runs from 6:00 PM UTC+8 on March 16 through 6:00 PM UTC+8 on March 31. Registered users can participate in leveraged trading and earn a 30%-100% cashback on their actual interest, based on their cumulative leveraged trading volume.

March 17 — Jack Ma, chairman of Ant Group and a 1994 alumnus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), and his wife (also a 1994 SJTU graduate) have jointly donated cash and Ant Group shares worth 130 million yuan to their alma mater to support the “AI Future Cornerstone Fund.” Zhang Jie, president of SJTU and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), congratulated Ma on his appointment to the university’s school board of directors and expressed sincere gratitude for the generous donation on behalf of SJTU. He noted that Ma has not only contributed financially to his alma mater’s development but also actively advanced the school’s AI strategy from a blueprint to reality through deep engagement—embodying the SJTU spirit of “remembering one’s roots, loving the country, and honoring the alma mater.” The university will further unite with its alumni, align efforts, and work together to advance its goal of building a world-class institution.

On March 17, OnchainLens monitoring data indicates that MetaPlanet—Japan’s largest Bitcoin custodian—transferred 4,986 Bitcoins (valued at $368.3 million) to a new wallet address after three months of inactivity. The move is speculated to be a routine fund consolidation rather than a sale.

March 17: WTI crude oil futures temporarily surged over 3%, with intraday gains expanding to 5.5%, per HyperInsight monitoring (https://t.me/HyperInsight). On Hyperliquid (https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/join/NTOD), CL (WTI crude oil) prices also climbed, currently trading at $97.5. This rally directly boosted on-chain long positions. MakerDAO founder Rune Christensen opened a 20x leveraged long position in CL on March 7 at an average price of $92.6, with unrealized gains now around $310,000 (+17.3%). Additionally, a whale with over $10 million in on-chain positions is largely short—this sudden crude oil spike has pushed these short positions into collective unrealized losses.

March 17 The Middle East situation remains escalated, shifting market focus away from "ceasefire prospects" toward "full threat mitigation." Trump called for Fed rate cuts and hinted the conflict would eventually push oil prices lower, but Gulf nations have undergone a structural attitude shift—from conflict avoidance to backing efforts to weaken Iran’s military capabilities. Regional risk has evolved from a short-term event to a long-term restructuring of the security framework. Meanwhile, the U.S. has allowed some oil tankers to transit through the region, even as oil-producing nations face supply disruptions, leaving the energy market in a highly distorted state. Policy divergence has widened: On one hand, conflict is pushing up energy and transportation costs, entrenching sticky inflation; on the other, economic momentum is losing steam. Markets have quickly adjusted their Fed expectations—rate cut probabilities have dropped sharply, with a chance of renewed rate hikes later t