The "Echo Chamber Effect" of the US-Iran return to negotiations is growing stronger, with the market becoming more optimistic

April 14: On-chain Perp DEX market trading volume rebounded, per DefiLlama data. Ecosystem project TradeXYZ saw higher trading volume but lower open interest. Meanwhile, Hyperliquid’s total perpetual contract open interest surged to a new February 2024 high—this round of position growth was not entirely driven by traditional markets. Current top Perp DEX by 24-hour trading volume: - Hyperliquid: ~$7.41B volume, $8.23B open interest - TradeXYZ: ~$2.47B volume, $1.87B open interest - Aster: ~$2.62B volume, $2.07B open interest - EdgeX: ~$2.15B volume, $964M open interest - Lighter: ~$1.83B volume, $761M open interest - Pacifica: ~$485M volume, $85.05M open interest Links: [Hyperliquid](https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/join/NTOD) [Aster](https://www.asterdex.com/en-US/referral/aboter) [Lighter](https://app.lighter.xyz/?referral=70045843) [Pacifica](https://app.pacifica.fi/trade/PAXG?referral=pacbot)

April 14th — Wintermute noted in a post that markets went through two distinct phases last week: powered by ceasefire hopes in the first half, the Nasdaq rose 4.5%, Bitcoin climbed 2.6%, and the VIX dropped below 20. Over the weekend, the Islamabad talks collapsed, the U.S. announced a full naval blockade of Iranian ports, Brent crude surged 8% in a single session to re-enter $103+, and risk assets pared earlier gains. On the macro front: - U.S. March CPI climbed 3.3% year-over-year, while core CPI rose 2.6% — slightly below forecasts. Markets view this as an isolated energy shock rather than broad-based inflation. - Asian markets edged lower overnight, with Nasdaq futures holding steady. Markets are reacting less sharply to each news item, either pricing in the worst-case scenario or growing complacent. On the crypto front: - Bitcoin finished last week up 2.6% but didn’t lead gains, trading in a $65k-$73k range for over two months. - Bitcoin spot ETFs posted a net inflow

On April 14, crypto detective ZachXBT shared on his social media channel that a fake Ledger Live app on the Apple App Store has led to over 50 suspected victims losing $9.5 million between April 7 and 13, per a community alert. The stolen funds—covering Bitcoin, EVM-compatible chains, Solana, and Ripple—were laundered through more than 150 deposit addresses on KuCoin, linked to a centralized mixing service called AudiA6 that charges steep fees to clean illicit funds. Apple removed the fake app yesterday, and the top three victims each lost a seven-figure sum.

Per Onchainlens data, a whale closed its BTC long position (opened March 8) on April 14, netting over $1.88 million in profit. The whale subsequently withdrew all funds from HyperLiquid.

April 14th — Per HyperInsight monitoring, five whales on Hyperliquid closed their long positions in the past 30 minutes, totaling $17.78 million. Of the total, 5,016.1 ETH (equivalent to $11.975 million) and 77.9 BTC (equivalent to $5.8064 million) were involved. The largest liquidation came from a whale with the address starting with 0x7e4: its 4,500 ETH long position opened this morning was fully closed, with a size of ~$10.74 million and a liquidation price of $2,382 per ETH. Full address: 0x7e4e766d0ae5ea9cded0c694669194db92800107

Innora, a security firm, released a report on April 14 stating that the Ethereum-based financial protocol Saturn has two critical vulnerabilities: - **Withdrawal Freeze Vulnerability**: Under normal operations, all user funds could be locked—for a minimum of 30 days, and potentially indefinitely in extreme cases. No hacker involvement is required; the protocol can trigger this on its own. - **Privileged Address Withholding**: The protocol’s privileged address can legally withhold up to 33.33% of funds per transaction. Current data shows a single withholding could reach roughly $157,000, with a theoretical total risk of $4.26 million. Innora noted that over 90% of Saturn’s assets are controlled by a privileged off-chain address, leaving users entirely reliant on trust. As of the report’s publication, the vulnerabilities remain unfixed.