Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Ethereum’s blockchain has registered an exceptional surge in large transactions, as Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) recorded 113,000 whale transfers exceeding $100,000 within the past week. This figure marks the most active whale movement since May 2021 and suggests substantial capital flows across Ethereum’s trading venues, lending markets, and decentralized finance protocols.

Institutional demand on the riseSeveral demand-side factors have contributed to this spike in on-chain activity. U.S. spot Ether exchange-traded funds have seen an uptick in inflows, while BlackRock’s ETH investment products continue to capture new capital from institutional investors. Market participants are interpreting these developments as potential triggers for further network and price growth.

Robinhood Chain’s adoption of ETH as a gas fee currency has also increased the utility of Ethereum in the decentralized exchange landscape, making ETH an even more integral asset for transaction fees and liquidity provision.

In a reflection of this momentum, Bitmine reportedly strengthened its Ethereum reserves to around 5.8 million ETH, signaling a move to position itself ahead of anticipated institutional demand. This action is viewed as part of a broader trend among corporate treasuries leveraging Ethereum’s ecosystem for capital allocation.

Strategic moves and robust network activityAdditional investments from players such as SharpLink and Ethlabs, the latter backed by Joe Lubin, further reinforce expectations of institutional interest within the Ethereum space. These entities see an opportunity in the convergence of ETF adoption, growing Layer 2 development, and increasing corporate engagement.

With numerous technical indicators and capital inflows in play, analysts warn that a sustained upward price movement is not necessarily assured. However, the recent upsurge in high-value transactions highlights a network environment ripe for strategic moves from both retail and institutional users.

The convergence of ETF adoption, Layer 2 expansion, and growing institutional allocations presents a critical point for Ethereum, making its network activity and whale behavior important signals to monitor for market shifts.

Extreme fear underscores current market sentimentDespite the significant on-chain action, market sentiment remains cautious, with indicators currently reading Extreme Fear. This situation amplifies the potential influence of whale activity on price volatility and trader psychology.

At the time of writing, Ethereum trades at approximately $1,932, reflecting a market dynamic shaped by both new institutional accumulation and prevailing uncertainty in sentiment. The balance between these factors could drive further volatility in the days ahead.

In light of heightened transaction volumes and shifting market signals, tools providing real-time analytics and alerts are becoming increasingly essential for active participants trying to stay informed amid rapid market changes. CryptoAppsy, which requires no account creation hassle, combines your crypto investments with real-time prices, detailed charts, and multi-currency portfolio management on a single screen. With this all-in-one financial assistant, you can instantly seize opportunities by setting up smart price alerts, filter news specific to your coins, discover newly listed altcoins without missing them, and always stay one step ahead of the market with critical macroeconomic data such as Fed interest rates.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

Ethereum’s well-known MEV bot JaredFromSubway was drained after an attacker used contracts that made its automated trading system grant token approvals, according to Blockaid.

Summary

Blockaid says attacker-controlled contracts tricked JaredFromSubway’s automated system into granting approvals later used for draining. Jared publicly claimed a $15 million loss, while Blockaid’s public estimate stood near $7.5 million. Crypto.news previously tied JaredFromSubway to Vitalik Buterin’s swap and heavy Ethereum gas use in 2023. The security firm said the incident was not a normal phishing case and not a direct bug in the victim contract. 

“This is not a classic phishing attack and not a traditional smart-contract vulnerability in the victim contract,” Blockaid said. 

The firm said the bot approved attacker-controlled contracts during routes that appeared to be profitable MEV trades.

https://twitter.com/blockaid_/status/2068433798757577198

Blockaid says approvals stayed open Blockaid said the attacker first tested routes where approvals were used at once, leaving no open allowance. Later, the attacker changed the route design so the bot gave approvals that were not spent or revoked.

One example cited by Blockaid involved an approval of about 92.16 WETH to an attacker helper contract. Etherscan data for the transaction showed jaredfromsubway.eth interacting with its MEV Bot 2 contract before the later sweep. The transaction record also showed ERC-20 movements tied to the same automated route.

Final sweep hit WETH, USDC and USDT The final transaction used the open approvals to pull WETH, USDC and USDT from the JaredFromSubway MEV bot contract through transferFrom. Etherscan showed transfers from “jaredfromsubway: MEV Bot 2” to the attacker wallet beginning with 0x3e37.

Blockaid put the drained amount at about $7.5 million. The JaredFromSubway account later claimed the loss was $15 million and offered a $1 million bounty for the full return of the funds. That difference has not been fully explained in the public posts reviewed.

https://twitter.com/jaredsmev/status/2068481862499237929

How the attacker turned the bot’s logic against it The attack appears to have targeted the bot’s own trading workflow. MEV bots watch Ethereum activity and act on transactions that look profitable. In this case, attacker-controlled contracts made the route look useful enough for the bot to approve spending rights.

The attacker used 66 fake token contracts that copied the look and function of WETH, USDC and USDT. These contracts were paired with fake liquidity pools. The setup pushed the bot toward approvals that later became the path for the drain.

JaredFromSubway’s record is back in focus JaredFromSubway is one of Ethereum’s most watched sandwich bots. In a sandwich attack, a bot places trades before and after a user’s swap. This can give the user a worse price while the bot captures the spread.

As previously reported by crypto.news, JaredFromSubway targeted a small swap by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in April, using about $1.14 million in WETH volume across SushiSwap and Uniswap V2. Crypto.news also reported in 2023 that the bot used 455 ETH in gas within 24 hours and accounted for about 7% of Ethereum gas use during that period.

The exploit now puts attention on token approvals used by automated systems. The case shows how a system built to act quickly on open market data can be steered into unsafe permissions when controls around approvals are weak. It also adds a new chapter to the wider debate over MEV, sandwich trades and user protection on Ethereum.

For now, the key public details remain split between Blockaid’s technical thread, the on-chain records and posts from the JaredFromSubway account. No recovery had been confirmed in the reviewed updates.

In a positive development for the crypto community, the individual responsible for the GMX exploit accepted the platform’s bounty and returned over $40 million worth of assets stolen from the project.

Crypto Hacker Takes $42 Million From GMX On Friday, the recent GMX V1 exploit ended on a happy note after the individual responsible for the incident turned into a white-hat hacker. Perpetual and spot crypto exchange GMX lost over $40 million on Wednesday when an attacker exploited a vulnerability in the protocol’s first version on Arbitrum.

According to online reports, GMX V1’s vault contract had a vulnerability that allowed the attacker to manipulate the GLP token price through the system’s calculations.

Blockchain security firm SlowMist explained that “The root cause of this attack stems from GMX v1’s design flaw, where short position operations immediately update the global short average prices (globalShortAveragePrices), which directly impacts the calculation of Assets Under Management (AUM), thereby allowing manipulation of GLP token pricing.”

Through a reentrancy attack, they successfully established massive short positions to manipulate the global average prices, artificially inflating GLP prices within a single transaction and profiting through redemption operations.

As a result, approximately $42 million worth of assets, including Legacy Frax Dollar (FRAX), wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), wrapped ETH (WETH), and other tokens, were transferred from the GLP pool to an unknown wallet.

The perpetual crypto exchange halted GMX V1’s trading and GLP’s minting and redeeming on both Arbitrum and Avalanche to prevent another attack and protect users’ funds. However, they clarified that the exploit was limited to GMX’s V1 and its GLP pool. GMX V2, its markets, or liquidity pools, and the GMX token were not affected and remained safe.

White-Hat Claims $5 Million Bounty Following the incident, GMX sent a message on-chain and on X offering a $5 million white-hat bounty to the attacker, claiming that their abilities were “evident to anyone looking into the exploit transactions.”

GMX’s team noted that returning the funds within the next 48 hours and accepting the bounty would allow the hacker to “spend the funds freely,” instead of taking additional risks to access them. They also vowed not to pursue any legal action and to assist the exploiter in providing proof of source for the funds if it is ever required.

Today, the exploiter responded in an on-chain message, accepting the bounty and starting the return process. As Lookonchain reported, they initially returned $10.49 million worth of FRAX on Friday morning.

GMX exploiter accepts white-hat bounty. Source: Lookonchain on X Meanwhile, another $32 million worth of assets had been swapped into 11,700 ETH, which are now valued at $35 million after the King of Altcoins’ price jumped to the $2,990 mark.

In the following hours, the hacker returned 10,000 ETH, worth $30 million, keeping only 1,700 ETH, valued at $5.2 million, as the bounty.

GMX later confirmed that the funds have now been safely returned and thanked the white-hat hacker for their actions, ultimately giving a positive turn to the incident.

Lastly, they informed users that “contributors are working on a proposed distribution plan for presentation to the GMX DAO and will share more information shortly.”

GMX token trades at $13.24 in the one-week chart. Source: GMXUSDT on TradingView Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

2026.04.20 09:49:47

Saturday, April 20 — The LayerZero cross-chain bridge for rsETH (a liquidity re-staking token from Kelp DAO) was hacked, marking the largest DeFi hack of 2026 to date. The attacker forged LayerZero cross-chain messages to withdraw 116,500 rsETH directly from the bridge contract, then deposited the tokens into Aave and other lending platforms to borrow WETH—creating significant uncollateralized bad debt risk. Below is a roundup of responses from major DeFi protocols to the rsETH hack: Aave has shared an update on the rsETH incident: rsETH on the Ethereum mainnet is fully collateralized. The token remains frozen on Aave V3 and V4, while WETH reserves are frozen in affected markets including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Mantle, and Linea. Aave is actively verifying details and evaluating potential resolutions. Ethena has officially extended the suspension period for its LayerZero OFT cross-chain bridge. Additionally, the protocol released updated reserve proofs confirming its USDe stablecoin maintains a collateralization ratio above 100%. LayerZero stated it has fully grasped the rsETH vulnerability and has been collaborating with the Kelp DAO team on fixes since the hack occurred, while continuously monitoring the situation. All other applications remain secure, and the protocol will publish a comprehensive post-incident analysis report alongside Kelp DAO once all relevant information is compiled. Fluid announced the launch of its aWETH redemption protocol, which enables ETH borrowers to: redeem for wstETH or weETH (restoring liquidity immediately and reducing liquidation risk); redeem in full if they only borrowed ETH; or seamlessly convert ETH collateral to wstETH/weETH while keeping other debts intact. The protocol’s initial capacity is capped at $1 billion worth of ETH. Morpho has temporarily suspended its MORPHO LayerZero OFT cross-chain bridge on Arbitrum until the root cause of the rsETH incident is identified. The protocol noted its smart contracts are secure and operating normally; risk exposure is limited (only ~$1 million worth of ETH was borrowed using rsETH as collateral, spread across two isolated markets out of thousands total). Thanks to Morpho’s fully isolated market design, all other vaults remain unaffected. Curve Finance announced it has suspended its LayerZero infrastructure, impacting: CRV bridging from BNB, Sonic, Avalanche, Fantom, Etherlink, and Kava (bridging from other chains still uses native bridges); and crvUSD quick bridging (L2 slow bridging remains operational). Reserve issued an official update: Its DTF holders are unlikely to be affected. RSR stakers in the Reserve Protocol’s USD3 and eUSD may qualify for "first-loss capital" protection, though the impact is minimal and RSR’s overcollateralization is sufficient to cover any potential losses. ETH+ and bsdETH contain no rsETH collateral, making them zero-risk. As a precaution, Reserve has temporarily paused minting, rebalancing, and RSR unstaking for eUSD and USD3—redemption functionality remains operational. Maple Finance stated all USDT provided on Aave Mantle using syrupUSDT has been withdrawn. Its syrupUSDC and syrupUSDT products are not impacted by the rsETH exploit. Polygon has been actively monitoring the rsETH exploit. The Polygon chain, Agglayer, and entire ecosystem (including Katana and Vaultbridge) have not been impacted by the incident. EtherFi announced its protocol’s liquidity pool remains unaffected by the Kelp rsETH exploit, and pool users will not suffer any fund losses. Hyperliquid’s DeFi project Hyperwave announced it has temporarily suspended all LayerZero bridging of Hyperwave assets as a precautionary measure.

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