Crypto Market Sees $272M in Liquidations Over 24 Hours, Both Long and Short Positions Hit

AAVE (Aave) down 6.53% in 24 hours

Gate News message, April 20, according to Gate market data. As of the time of writing, AAVE (Aave) is trading at $92.32. Over the past 24 hours, it is down 6.53%, with a high of $99.17 and a low of $88.71. The 24-hour trading volume is $16.9544 million. The current market cap is approximately $140.1 million. Aave is an open-source decentralized lending protocol that provides deposit and borrowing services for users. The deposit interest rates for depositors and the loan interest rates for borrowers are calculated algorithmically based on the platform’s borrowing amount and deposit amount. The platform also uses Chainlink oracles to ensure fairness in the collateral price. AAVE’s recent important news: 1️⃣ **Kelp DAO cross-chain bridge hacked, triggering a liquidity crisis** The hacker exploited a LayerZero cross-chain bridge vulnerability to steal rsETH worth $291 million, and then used the illegally obtained rsETH to provide collateral and borrow on Aave, causing the utilization rate of Aave’s core lending pool to reach 100%. The incident triggered a chain reaction: Aave’s net withdrawals totaled $6.2 billion, and total deposits fell from $45.8 billion to $35.7 billion. This event directly hit market confidence and is the main reason for the recent decline. 2️⃣ **Multiple institutions and whales panic-selling** After the incident, multiple whale addresses sold AAVE heavily on-chain, including the "smaugvision" address selling 20,015 tokens, the 0xFC5 address selling 20,000 tokens, and the 0xA2E address selling 19,665 tokens—totaling nearly 60,000 tokens. The well-known whale "ThisWillMakeYouLoveAgain" even cut losses and stopped the loss by selling 29,400 AAVE for $2.73 million, with losses exceeding $6 million. Large-scale selling further intensified downward pressure on the market. 3️⃣ **DAO governance approves a large financing plan to support long-term development** The Aave DAO passed the first grant proposal under the Aave Will Win framework with 75% support. Aave Labs will receive $25 million in stablecoins and 75,000 AAVE (about $6.8 million) unlocked linearly over four years. Founder Stani clearly laid out the strategic direction: all product revenues will flow back to the DAO treasury, with the goal of expanding the protocol’s scale from $40 billion to the trillion-level. This financing plan provides a solid foundation for the protocol’s long-term development, but in the short term the market still needs to absorb the impact of the hacker incident. 4️⃣ **Smart money addresses build positions against the trend** On-chain data shows that over the past seven days, approximately $2.9 million worth of AAVE has flowed out of exchanges. Smart money addresses are accumulating AAVE, with their holdings increasing to 359,880 tokens. The top 100 traders saw a net inflow of $2.18 million, and the leading profit-taking wallets maintained their positions without moving, suggesting that institutional investors are optimistic about Aave’s long-term prospects and providing some support for the current price. This information is not investment advice. Please note the risk of market volatility when investing.

TradFi Rise Alert: VIX (VIX) Rises Over 1.5%

Gate News: According to the latest Gate TradFi data, VIX (VIX) has surged by 1.5% in a short period. Current volatility is significantly higher than recent averages, indicating increased market activity.

U.S. military seizes an Iranian cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman, and Bitcoin plunges to $74k

A U.S. Navy destroyer destroyed and seized an Iranian cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman, driving up market risk-hedging sentiment, with Bitcoin down 2.5% and Brent crude soaring to $97. Iran vowed retaliation, and diplomatic negotiations face a highly uncertain situation. On Wednesday, the ceasefire deadline has become the focus of market attention.

TradFi Fall Alert: XAGUSD (Silver) Falls Over 2%

Gate News: According to the latest Gate TradFi data, XAGUSD (Silver) has dropped by 2% in a short period. Current volatility is significantly higher than recent averages, indicating increased market activity.

Bitcoin falls below 74K; U.S. former defense secretary: A U.S.-Iran agreement may be difficult to reach before the deadline

With tensions rising in the Middle East geopolitical landscape, the Strait of Hormuz has become the focal point of military conflict between the U.S. and Iran. Attacks and seizures of cargo ships have been occurring frequently, and crude oil prices have risen. The U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement is set to expire soon; peace talks have fallen into a stalemate due to irreconcilable positions, making it difficult to reach an agreement. As a result, the price of Bitcoin has dropped below 74K.

ETH drops 0.69% in 15 minutes: large on-chain transfer outflows trigger a rebound of spot sell pressure

During the period from 2026-04-19 22:00 to 2026-04-19 22:15（UTC）, the ETH price fell from 2275.98 USDT to 2252.72 USDT. The return over 15 minutes was -0.69%, and the amplitude reached 1.02%. During this round of unusual price movement, short-term market volatility increased, attention on major coins rose, trading activity improved, and volatility was clearly tilted bearish. The main driver behind this unusual move is the frequent occurrence of on-chain ETH large transfers with both high frequency and notable volume concentrated in a short period. Using a certain well-known hot wallet as a hub, more than 20,000 ETH were transferred out in a short time, and some of it has been traced on-chain and confirmed to have flowed to other exchanges’ receiving addresses. After funds briefly flowed into trading platforms, the number of sell orders in the spot market increased significantly, bringing about a phase of liquidity pressure and further intensifying the downward move in price. In addition, the futures market is linked to spot volatility; during the decline, highly leveraged long positions were liquidated passively, pushing short-term prices to release more downside pressure. At the same time, the pace of ETF capital inflows has slowed since mid-April. Within the latest range, continuous net inflows have been trending steadily, and coupled with some funds making small redemptions, this weakens the market’s institutional support. Global risk sentiment is also facing synchronized pressure—repeated swings in macro-level expectations for the Federal Reserve’s policy and heightened geopolitical tensions have driven inflows into safe-haven assets. The U.S. Dollar Index strengthened in the short term, global equity markets came under pressure, and this further reinforced ETH’s ongoing downside pressure. In addition, the 24-hour trading volumes for spot and futures were 21.75 billion USD and 42.76 billion USD, respectively; futures open interest was 30.93 billion USD. The liquidation size showed no abnormality, indicating a structural adjustment under multi-dimensional market convergence. Going forward, it is necessary to stay alert to risks such as continued large outflows on-chain and ETF capital movements shifting from inflows to outflows. If the macro environment deteriorates further, ETH may further intensify volatility. For short-term support, watch the 2250 USDT area; resistance is at 2275 USDT. The ETF trend, the direction of on-chain transfers, and macro news remain the key indicators to monitor for the next stage. Please closely follow subsequent market developments and the flow of large on-chain funds, and promptly capture relevant trading information.