By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless otherwise noted)
Programmable blockchain Solana’s SOL token hit a five-week low after an exploit on one of its largest decentralized perpetual exchanges, Drift, highlighted that security risks extend beyond simple smart contracts.
“If you’re building in DeFi, audit your admin key surface. Not just smart contracts,” said Omer Goldberg, founder of Chaos Labs, explaining what went wrong.
Goldberg explained in his X thread that the attacker compromised Drift’s admin key. This single key gave the attacker divine control, like giving someone the master password to the entire bank vault, with no limits or alarms.
Using this power, the attacker created a fake collateral market for a worthless token called CVT. They maximized the risk parameters so that the system treats hundreds of millions of these unwanted tokens as safe, high-value collateral. In the same transaction, they replaced the CVT price oracle with one they completely controlled, artificially increased its value to dizzying levels, lifted the circuit breakers on major assets (removing withdrawal limits) such as USDC, eETH and others, and drained over $250 million worth of tokens.
It also worked because Drift has a single shared liquidity pool that holds everyone’s collateral and trading funds, providing a seamless trading experience. (Imagine putting all your money in one bank account and losing it all in a signature hack).
The real problem wasn’t a bug in the code. It was about the enormous “surface area” of this admin key, or the massive damage a compromised signer could cause by rewriting protocol-wide risk rules, assigning oracles, and disabling security guards.
This is not the first time that a compromised privileged key has led to big losses. Just 10 days earlier, Resolv lost $25 million in tokens after attackers compromised a SERVICE_ROLE key.
The message is therefore clear: protocol security now depends as much on strong governance and key controls as on smart contract audits.
As for the markets, SOL’s nearly 3% decline to $78.30, the lowest since late February, is consistent with Bitcoin’s weakness. ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), and the broader market, represented by the CoinDesk 20 Index.
The culprit once again is President Donald Trump’s renewed threat against Iran, which has driven up oil prices. In the short term, these headlines could continue to lead movements in both traditional and crypto markets. Stay vigilant!
Read more: For analysis of current altcoin and derivatives activity, see Crypto Markets Today
What to watch
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Cryptocurrency
- Macro
- April 2, 8:30 a.m.: first unemployment claims in the United States for the week ending March 28 (previous 210,000)
- Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
Token Events
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Votes and calls on governance
- Unlock DAO votes to transfer 3 ETH to its multisig base to exchange for USDC to cover current and future operational expenses. Voting closes on April 2.
- Aavegotchi DAO votes to elect nine multi-signature signatories, maintain a signature threshold of 5 out of 9 and set their quarterly remuneration at $1,000 paid in GHST. Voting closes on April 2.
- Arbitrum DAO is voting on two proposals to transform its code of conduct and procedures into living documents managed by OpCo and move to ArbOS 60 Elara. Voting closes on April 2.
- Unlocks
- April 2: Ethena (ENA) will release 2.18% of its circulating supply worth $16.05 million.
- Token Launches
Conferences
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
Market movements
- BTC is down 2.53% from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday at $66,459.24 (24 hours: -3.1%)
- ETH is down 4.66% at $2,043.77 (24 hours: -4.16%)
- CoinDesk 20 is down 3.59% at 1,891.30 (24h: -3.81%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate Up 1bp to 2.77%
- BTC funding rate is 0.0001% (0.0635% annualized) on Binance
- The DXY is up 0.51% at 100.16
- Gold futures are down 3.56% at $4,641.60
- Silver futures are down 6.47% at $71.15
- The Nikkei 225 closed down 2.38% at 52,463.27
- Hang Seng closed 0.7% lower at 25,116.53
- The FTSE is down 0.08% at 10,356.15
- The Euro Stoxx 50 is down 1.61% at 5,640.26
- DJIA closed Wednesday up 0.48% at 46,565.74
- The S&P 500 closed up 0.72% at 6,575.32
- The Nasdaq Composite closed up 1.16% at 21,840.95
- The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed up 0.58% at 32,957.95
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed up 0.95% at 3,658.43
- The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield is up 5.1 basis points at 4.372%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 1.17% at 6,540.50
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 1.51% at 23,830.00
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are down 0.97% at 46,353.00
Bitcoin Statistics
- BTC dominance: 58.58% (+0.04%)
- Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.03079 (-2.02%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,016 EH/s
- Hash price (spot): $31.48
- Total fees: 2.55 BTC / $174,507
- Open Interest on CME Futures: 107,610 BTC
- BTC valued in gold: 14.4 oz.
- BTC vs. gold market capitalization: 4.44%
Technical analysis
- The chart shows Solana’s daily price fluctuations in candlestick form with the Ichimoku Cloud, a trend indicator, identified by the shaded area between the green and red lines.
- The token’s price returned below the cloud, indicating the continuation of the broader decline. The trend is similar to that observed in mid-January, after which prices fell sharply.
- The Ichimoku cloud, invented by a Japanese journalist, is widely used to detect trend changes. Crosses above and below the cloud are said to represent bullish and bearish trend changes.
Crypto Stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): Closed Monday at $172.99 (-0.93%), -3.17% at $167.50 in pre-market
- Circle Internet (CRCL): closed at $90.74 (-4.89%), -1.59% at $89.30
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $17.37 (-5.85%), -2.42% at $16.95
- Bull (BLSH): closed at $35.07 (-1.85%), -2.79% at $34.09
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $8.04 (-1.47%), -2.74% at $7.82
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): close at $12.55 (+1.54%), -4.94% at $11.93
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $15.30 (+2.27%), -3.66% at $14.74
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $8.62 (+1.29%), -3.38% at $8.33
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): Closed at $34.86 (+0.11%)
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $6.68 (+2.77%)
Crypto Cash Companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $122.78 (-1.62%), -2.09% at $120.21
- Strive (ASST): closed at $10.16 (+1.40%), -3.44% at $9.81
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $6.46 (+0.16%), -3.72% at $6.22
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $0.99 (+0.20%), -5.16% at $0.94
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.13 (-2.59%), -5.31% at $1.07
ETF Feed
Spot BTC ETF
- Daily net flow: -$173.7 million
- Cumulative net flows: $55.92 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.29 million
ETH Spot ETF
- Daily net flow: -$7.1 million
- Cumulative net flows: $11.58 billion
- Total ETH holdings ~5.71 million
Source: Farside Investors
While you were sleeping
Trump stokes market and political angst with vague timetable for Iran (Bloomberg): The US Treasury bond market, valued at $31 trillion, recorded its worst monthly performance in March since the end of 2024, as bond investors feared that the war-induced rise in oil prices could trigger inflation.
‘We’re going to hit them hard’: Markets disappointed, oil rises after Trump speech (euronews): Oil rose sharply and European stocks fell after Trump said in his first national speech since the start of the Iran war that the United States would continue its attacks on Iran.
Gold, silver fall as investors doubt Trump’s exit plan (The Wall Street Journal): Gold and silver prices moved into the red, as did industrial metals and stocks. Spot gold prices fell 3% to around $4,670 per troy ounce. Spot silver fell more than 5%.
Bitcoin cash boom fades as some companies and governments sell off holdings (CoinDesk): Those who rushed into Bitcoin over the past two years are now heading towards the exit and that’s not a good sign for the market.
