CoinDesk

Richard Kim, the founder of crypto casino Zero Edge, was arrested on Tuesday following allegations that he had gambled away investors' funds.

According to an FBI complaint filed on Tuesday in the Southern District of New York, Kim "fraudulently induced investors to invest in Zero Edge, a cryptocurrency technology company he founded, and then misappropriated millions of dollars in those investors’ funds."

The FBI said Kim lost "nearly all" of the $7 million he raised from investors and charged him with securities fraud and wire fraud. According to court records, Kim posted a secured bond of $250,000 and put up $100,000 in "cash or real property" to secure it.

CoinDesk was first to report on the Zero Edge incident in July of last year. In an interview at the time, Kim revealed to CoinDesk that he had gambled away more than $3.67 million of his investors' funds through a series of high-risk leveraged crypto trades.

"The downfall began with a careless mistake — a phishing site that cost $80k," Kim said in his own recollection of what went wrong, which he shared with CoinDesk in a written statement that he later published as a public apology. "This triggered my old demons, the need to 'make it back' to preserve my reputation."

According to Kim, he "started down a negative spiral of leverage trading, raising more capital, and hiding the truth."

After losing most of the $7 million he had raised for Zero Edge, Kim told CoinDesk he reported himself to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's public tip line.

"Part of my rationale in reaching out proactively to the SEC was to say, OK guys, I really f—d up. I lost this money. It was grossly negligent. But I didn't intend to go run away with this money," he told CoinDesk in an interview.

According to the FBI complaint, Kim's previous accounts "misleadingly described where investors' funds had gone, and why, and omitted to inform investors that certain funds had been transferred to Shuffle.com, the gambling website."

Kim's claim that he initially lost $80,000 to a phishing scam and never “mix[ed] personal and business funds,” according to the FBI, failed to account for the fact that he had also sent company funds to an online sportsbook and personal crypto investment accounts.

Kim did not immediately respond to a request for comment this week.

Kim's arrest marks a striking fall from grace. A former executive of Galaxy, the crypto investment firm headed by Michael Novogratz, Kim also led elite trading desks at JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. Before that, he was an attorney with the prestigious law firm Cleary Gottlieb.

Galaxy was among the investors in Zero Edge who lost money as a result of Kim's activities.

"Mr. Kim left Galaxy in March 2024 to start Zero Edge, a company in which Galaxy had an immaterial balance-sheet investment," said Michael Wursthorn, Galaxy's head of communications. "Upon learning of certain actions taken by Mr. Kim in his role at Zero Edge, we, along with other investors, reported his conduct to the authorities."

Kim pitched Zero Edge as a first-of-its-kind crypto casino that would level the playing field for gamblers through improved transparency.

Zero Edge never launched, but Kim told CoinDesk last year that he was motivated to build it because of his history with gambling addiction and his frustration that the house frequently had an opaque and unfair edge over players.

Read more: Crypto Casino Founder Apologizes for Gambling Away Investor Funds

In today’s crypto for advisors, Todd Bendell from Amphibian Capital breaks down bitcoin yield products as a strategy to grow bitcoin holdings beyond price appreciation.

Then, Rich Rines, an initial Core DAO developer, provides guidance to Bitcoin developers in Ask an Expert.

Exclusive event alert for financial advisors: Join CoinDesk for Wealth Management Day on May 15th at Consensus Toronto. Registered wealth advisors are provided with their own day of networking and learning where they will acquire timely and actionable information about digital assets. Approved advisors receive a complimentary 3-day Platinum Pass ($1,750 value) to Consensus. Apply today.

– Sarah Morton

You’re reading Crypto for Advisors, CoinDesk’s weekly newsletter that unpacks digital assets for financial advisors. Subscribe here to get it every Thursday.

The Next Frontier for Bitcoin Holders: Generating BTC-on-BTC Yield

Bitcoin was never meant to sit idle.

For over a decade, bitcoin has served as a digital store of value, a hedge against monetary debasement and more recently, a core allocation in institutional portfolios. As the asset matures and infrastructure improves, long-term holders are asking a new question: How do I put my bitcoin to work — without leaving the Bitcoin ecosystem?

The answer lies in a growing but underexplored category of strategies: BTC-on-BTC yield.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t about lending your BTC on unregulated platforms or chasing high annual percentage yields (APYs) à la BlockFi. That playbook collapsed under the weight of counterparty risk and opacity. What’s emerged over the last two years is a more institutional alternative — diversified, risk-managed access to systematic arbitrage and quantitative strategies, all denominated in bitcoin.

Why BTC-native yield matters

For most assets, it’s a given that money should work for you. We don’t keep dollars under a mattress or tucked away on a thumb drive — we invest them. Yet in the bitcoin world, the dominant narrative has long been “hold and wait.”

That mindset made sense when bitcoin was fighting for legitimacy. But in today’s environment — where BTC is being adopted by sovereign wealth funds and traded on major exchanges — long-term holders need better tools.

BTC-on-BTC yield solves this. It aligns with the ethos of accumulating more BTC but does so through institutional-grade strategies that aim to generate returns in BTC, not just on BTC. That distinction matters.

Cold storage isn’t a strategy

There’s also a myth that simply holding bitcoin in cold storage is the safest option. The phrase “not your keys, not your coins” has become dogma — but it deserves a second look.

In reality, cold storage comes with its own risks: human error, hardware failure, loss of keys and in many cases, an inability to generate any yield whatsoever. Meanwhile, professional custodians — regulated, insured and audited — are now standard infrastructure providers in digital asset management.

For allocators managing material BTC positions, yield-generating custody isn’t a tradeoff. It’s an upgrade.

How these strategies work

Today’s BTC-native yield opportunities span a wide range — from delta-neutral basis trades and statistical arbitrage to DeFi yield farming and machine learning-driven quant execution — but all settled in BTC.

Returns are calculated and distributed in kind. The objective is simple: accumulate more BTC over time, without needing to rely solely on price appreciation.

By allocating across a diversified mix of strategies and managers, investors can pursue consistent BTC growth while mitigating single-strategy or single-manager risk.

Why BTC-on BTC yield is timely

Several forces are converging right now:

Volatility has returned. Major liquidation events — like the $10 billion flush in February — create dislocations that sophisticated funds can capitalize on.

Infrastructure is stronger than ever. Custody, execution and risk tools have matured significantly since the last cycle.

Institutional interest is real. ETFs have opened the floodgates — but most capital is still under-allocated and under-deployed.

In short, bitcoin is growing up. The question is whether the strategies around it will grow with it.

Rethinking HODLing

BTC-on-BTC yield and long-term holding aren’t mutually exclusive. Allocators can continue to hold core BTC positions while using active strategies to pursue steady accumulation.

That requires moving beyond cold storage maxims and exploring yield strategies that reflect the sophistication of today’s markets. With proper risk controls, BTC-native yield offers a pragmatic path to accumulate more BTC without abandoning its core principles.

The bottom line is that bitcoin doesn’t have to sit on the sidelines. It can move with the market — and grow with it.

For allocators thinking in decades, BTC-on-BTC yield opens the door to a more productive bitcoin strategy — one that matches conviction with action.

- Todd Bendell, Managing General Partner, Amphibian Capital

Ask an Expert

Q. What’s the best way to align early developer incentives with long-term protocol value?

A. The key is to reward real product-market fit and real users — not short-term speculation. That starts with building tight relationships and solving problems for real communities. From there, it's about fostering an “eat what you kill” ecosystem, in which builders who ship products people actually use are rewarded with real economic upside — not just points, grants or temporary incentives. When developers are compensated based on the value they create for users, long-term alignment takes care of itself.

Q. When just starting out in crypto, how can developers filter for signal over noise?

A. Don’t just chase the hot thing — look for what will still matter in 5 to 10 years. That’s one of the key reasons Bitcoin remains a compelling foundation for builders. It has dedicated users, immense value and a clear product-market fit. Developers should focus on real usage and demand instead of short-term token price action. If you're building something that keeps people engaged because it's useful — not because it's yield-farming season — you’re already filtering signal from noise.

Q. What lessons from Bitcoin’s design philosophy are still underutilized?

A. Bitcoin is dominant not because it does the most, but because it does one thing better than anyone else. Its product-market fit as digital gold is crypto’s most proven use case — and yet it’s still underrated. Too many forget that simplicity with real utility wins. Building around Bitcoin and extending its utility without compromising its foundation remains one of the most underrated opportunities in the space today.

- Rich Rines, an initial contributor, Core DAO

Keep Reading

CoinDesk's Digital Assets Quarterly Report provides a comprehensive analysis of the crypto market’s performance.

Sweden is the latest country to explore using bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced the end of its crypto “enforcement by prosecution” policies.

VanEck is bringing an actively-managed exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking digital asset stocks to the market after receiving approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The VanEck Onchain Economy ETF (NODE) will aim to hold 30-60 stocks, VanEck’s head of digital asset research Matthew Sigel, said in a post on X.The management fee will be 0.69%.

Stocks included will range among crypto exchanges, miners, data center, energy infrastructure, semiconductors, hardware, TradFi rails, consumer/gaming, asset managers and “balance sheet HOLDers.” Up to 25% of NODE’s exposure will be in crypto exchange-traded-products (ETPs).

“The global economy is shifting to a digital foundation," Sigel said. "NODE offers active equity exposure to the real businesses building that future."

The fund is expected to start trading on May 14th and will use an offshore subsidiary in the Cayman Islands to be able to get indirect exposure to products like commodity futures, swaps, and pooled investment vehicles while complying with U.S. federal tax regulations.

As a growing amount of crypto-related stocks start trading on the market, with several companies looking to go public this year, investors are increasingly wanting exposure to crypto-related stocks. A survey among financial advisors at an ETF conference in March found that crypto equity ETFs are at the forefront of what advisors are interested in investing.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Ethena and tokenization firm Securitize said they will use part of Arbitrum's tech and data availability network Celestia for their real-world asset focused, Ethereum-compatible blockchain, aiming to launch mainnet in the second quarter of this year.

The Converge chain is setting out to have fast blocktimes, allowing users to pay gas fees through Ethena's USDe and USDtb, while creating security and guardrails via its Converge Validator Network, the two protocols behind the project explained in a tech update shared with CoinDesk.

"The idea is that we go on a testnet very soon, in the next few weeks, because we've already been working on this for a while," Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize, said in an exclusive interview with CoinDesk. "Then, the mainnet: the goal is to do it before the end of Q2."

The exact timing of the public rollout also depends on third-party integrations such as Anchorage for custody support, Fireblocks for key management and other DeFi apps the project partnered with, Domingo added.

Connecting RWA and DeFi

Converge, unveiled last month, aims to connect the rapidly growing tokenized real-world assets (RWA) sector with the DeFi space, building on existing ecosystems around Ethena and Securitize and their multi billion dollar worth of assets.

Ethena has quickly become a DeFi powerhouse, spearheading the yield-bearing stablecoin trend with its $5 billion "synthetic dollar" token USDe. Meanwhile, Securitize issues nearly $4 billion in tokenized assets by traditional finance giants like Apollo and Hamilton Lane and BlackRock's blockchain-based money market fund token BUIDL. The latter is also the key backing asset of Ethena's $1.4 billion USDtb stablecoin.

"Converge’s ambitious vision of onboarding tens of billions of institutional capital on-chain requires providing users with high performance and elevated security guarantees," Guy Young, founder of development firm Ethena Labs, said in a statement.

To achieve that lofty goal, the Converge chain's performance relies on a custom sequencer for an Arbitrum-powered blockchain, while using Celestia as the data availability layer underneath it, according to the tech update shared with CoinDesk. A sequencer is a key piece of blockchain infrastructure that compiles transactions from layer-2 networks and posts them back to the layer-1 network.

Data availability layers, like Celestia, aim to bring down the downloading and storage costs for data-intensive blockchain networks. The combination of Conduit’s G2 sequencer, as well as the use of Arbitrum and Celestia’s tech is supposed "to push the boundaries of what level of throughput is possible on EVM-based networks," the team wrote.

The network will use Ethena's USDe and USDtb as gas tokens to pay for transaction costs across the network. Both tokens are designed with a price anchored to $1, allowing easier accounting for transaction costs, the team wrote.

Converge will also support both permissionless and permissioned applications operating side by side. Developers can deploy permissionless DeFi apps freely, while institutional issuers such as Securitize can create permissioned environments for compliant real-world asset products.

In addition, the Converge Validator Network (CVN) is supposed to provide the foundations of the network’s security, by essentially acting as the chain’s security council. The CVN will have the ability to interfere during emergencies like when funds are at risk, perform circuit breakers to pause user-activity if there are serious bugs, as well as review important governance proposals.

In order to participate in the CVN, validators must stake ENA, Ethena’s governance token. According to the team, the CVN will go live shortly after mainnet launches.

"Technical breakthroughs on this initiative will drive asymmetric product outcomes for Converge, and thus growth in USDe, USDtb and other Ethena and Securitize products," Young said.

Almost one year to the day after Ethereum protocol EigenLayer launched its “restaking” network to unprecedented industry fanfare, the network is finally adding a core feature that was, until now, glaringly absent: “slashing.”

Eigen Labs hopes slashing — EigenLayer’s system for keeping “restakers” honest by revoking collateral if they act maliciously — will finally realize the year-old protocol’s original pitch.

“We are happy to say now that the whole promise has been delivered,” said EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan.

EigenLayer became one of the buzziest protocols in Ethereum history when it introduced investors to the concept of restaking, an evolution of “proof-of-stake” on Ethereum.

Ethereum's "proof-of-stake" system lets users "stake" ether (ETH) collateral with the chain to help run and secure it in exchange for interest. EigenLayer lets users stake ETH on Ethereum and then restake it again with other protocols for even more interest.

Despite launching its main network last year, slashing, a primary component of EigenLayer’s shared security technology, was missing until Thursday. This led to criticism that EigenLayer’s ambitious pitch didn’t match its technical reality.

Today, EigenLayer boasts more than $7 billion in restaked assets, making it one of the largest decentralized finance (DeFi) apps. It also supports an ecosystem of 39 actively validated services (AVSs) that use its security model.

The new slashing system will roll out on Thursday, but AVS teams will need to opt-in, meaning it may take some time before slashing is live in any applications. Eigen Labs announced April 17 as the launch date for slashing earlier this month.

Redesigning for Safety

EigenLayer users restake ether (ETH) and other tokens through third-party “operators” — infrastructure providers who delegate their pooled EigenLayer deposits across different AVSs.

Operators that delegate stake to an AVS help run it in exchange for rewards: the more they stake, the higher the rewards.

In theory, slashing ensures these operators are running AVSs correctly. If operators “are proven to be malicious according to an on-chain Ethereum contract, then they may lose their stake or a portion of their stake,” explained Kannan.

When slashing goes live on Thursday, AVSs will have the option to set slashing conditions and begin penalizing bad actors.

“Other than Ethereum and Cosmos, most proof-of-stake systems, including Solana, are running live without any slashing,” said Kannan. “Even though it is the core accountability mechanism, it’s not like every proof of stake system already has this—that’s not true. That’s what we’re building.”

As for why EigenLayer received so much blowback compared to other incomplete proof-of-stake systems: “We’ve talked a lot about slashing, so we are held to that bar,” said Kannan.

Removing leverage

EigenLayer’s slashing system was redesigned last year to address fears that the protocol introduced an unsafe form of leverage to the Ethereum ecosystem.

“I think we completely cured that problem with this redesign,” said Kannan.

The entire idea behind EigenLayer is to allow new protocols to immediately tap into a large security pool — the total pool of restaked assets.

In proof-of-stake systems, the amount of assets staked with a protocol roughly corresponds to how secure it is. In general, attacking a protocol like Ethereum requires controlling half or more of the assets staked, which can run into billions of dollars.

EigenLayer’s pooling model has led to fears that a poorly built slashing system could expose the entire protocol to new risks, where a single bad actor on one AVS could harm every operator.

The version of EigenLayer going live Thursday, which has been tested on Ethereum’s developer networks since December, was designed so operators can limit their exposure to a given AVS, meaning bad actors on one won’t necessarily impact another.

“You have unique attributability of stake to a particular AVS,” explained Kannan. “As an AVS, I know I have, like, 10 million of ‘slashable’ stake that is not double counted — so there is no leverage.”

Additionally, the system has been configured so that “even if my AVS has a small amount of slashable stake, it is still protected in some sense, by the large amount of capital,” said Kannan, since there are still systems in place to ensure the cost of attacking a system increases with the total value of the pool of restaked assets.

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.

The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 2468.7, up 1.2% (+29.84) since 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

Eighteen of 20 assets are trading higher.

Leaders: BCH (+4.2%) and NEAR (+3.7%).

Laggards: APT (-1.4%) and FIL (-1.1%).

The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

Stellar, a superfast and low fee-public blockchain, says it plans to hold $3 billion in real-world asset (RWA) value and power $110 billion in RWA volume by the end of 2025.

The goal set by the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), the nonprofit that supports the development and growth of the Stellar network, is building on existing partnerships with the likes of Franklin Templeton and Wisdom Tree.

In addition, Stellar is welcoming a new round of tokenization specialists such as Paxos, Ondo, Etherfuse and SG Forge, the blockchain innovation division of French bank Société Générale.

“We have a goal of powering $3 billion in real-world asset value on Stellar in 2025,” Lauren Thorbjornsen, VP and chief of staff at Stellar Development Foundation, said in an interview. “That would be more than a 10x increase from the $290 million in RWA we had in Stellar at the end of December 2024. But already we see a lot of growth happening on the network, just in the first quarter of this year.”

Tokenizing a range of existing financial assets has become all the rage among traditional finance firms over the past year or so, with major companies including BlackRock entering the space.

Stellar, established in 2014 by former Ripple CTO Jed McCaleb, is designed to facilitate fast and low-cost cross-border transactions between any pair of currencies or assets.

Lombard Finance, a Bitcoin infrastructure developer, has launched a software development kit (SDK) that allows wallets, exchanges, and other platforms to offer one-click bitcoin (BTC) staking.

The release aims to further bring BTC into the decentralized finance (DeFi) economy by tapping into the estimated $154 billion in bitcoin estimated to be sitting idle on centralized exchanges.

The new toolkit allows users to stake BTC to mint a liquid staking token called LBTC, which can be automatically deposited into Lombard’s DeFi Vault for a current annual yield of 3%, according to the protocol.

“Once viewed solely as a store of value, Bitcoin is now increasingly being integrated into DeFi, unlocking new earning opportunities for BTC holders,” said Lombard Finance co-founder Jacob Phillips, who added that the SDK removes “the complexity for both platforms and users.”

Leading cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Bybit have already integrated the SDK, with additional wallet integrations—including xVerse, Metamask, and Trust Wallet—also being supported. For these platforms, the integration offers new revenue streams and a way to keep users engaged through a new DeFi offering, Lombard says.

Bitcoin staking through Lombard's system began seven months ago and has grown into a $4 billion market. Lombard’s DeFi Vault, powered by smart contract provider Veda, currently holds more than $200 million in total value locked.

The protocol expanded last month with the launch of its liquid-staking bitcoin token, LBTC, on the Sui blockchain.

By Francisco Rodrigues (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” announcement earlier this month drove the economic trade policy uncertainty index to a record high and sent investors away from risk assets, which include bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell fanned the flames late Wednesday, saying the central bank sees unemployment rising with the economy likely to slow and inflation likely to go up as "some part of those tariffs come to be paid by the public.”

His comments weighed further on risk assets, bringing the Nasdaq down 1.17% and the S&P 500 dropping 2.24% before the closing bell. Still, bitcoin is up more than 1% in the last 24 hours, while the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index, which captures the broader market, added 1.8%, even though crypto is seen more as gauge of risk than a safe haven.

To Michael Brown, an analyst at Pepperstone, demand for “assets which provide shelter from political incoherence and trade uncertainty” is likely to keep growing, The Telegraph reported.

While bitcoin has outperformed the stock market — up 1% in the past month compared with the Nasdaq’s near 8% drop — institutional investors are piling into gold, the battle-tested safe haven.

The precious metal is up 11% over the last month and 27% this year to around $3,340 a troy ounce. Bank of America’s Global Fund Manager Survey shows that 49% of fund managers see “long gold” as Wall Street’s most crowded trade, with 42% of fund managers forecasting it to be the best-performing asset of the year.

UBS analysts wrote in a note that the “case for adding gold allocations has become more compelling than ever in this environment of escalating tariff uncertainty, weaker growth, higher inflation, geopolitical risks & diversification away from US assets & the US$,” Investopedia reported.

Gold fund flows have hit $80 billion so far this year, while SoSoValue data shows spot bitcoin ETFs saw $5.25 billion net inflows in January and net outflows since the uncertainty started. Month-to-date, over $900 million left these funds, after February and March saw $3.56 billion and $767 billion of net outflows, respectively. Stay alert!

What to Watch

Crypto:

April 17: EigenLayer (EIGEN) activates slashing on Ethereum mainnet, enforcing penalties for operator misconduct.

April 18: Pepecoin (PEP), a layer-1, proof-of-work blockchain, undergoes its second halving, reducing block rewards to 15,625 PEP per block.

April 20, 11 p.m.: BNB Chain (BNB) — opBNB mainnet hardfork.

April 21: Coinbase Derivatives will list XRP futures pending approval by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

April 25, 1:00 p.m.: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Crypto Task Force Roundtable on "Key Considerations for Crypto Custody".

Macro

April 17, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. Census Bureau releases March new residential construction data.

Housing Starts Est. 1.42M vs. Prev. 1.501M

Housing Starts MoM Prev. 11.2%

April 17, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Department of Labor releases unemployment insurance data for the week ended April 12.

Initial Jobless Claims Est. 225K vs. Prev. 223K

April 17, 7:30 p.m.: Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs & Communications releases March consumer price index (CPI) data.

Core Inflation Rate YoY Est. 3.2% vs. Prev. 3%

Inflation Rate MoM Prev. -0.1%

Inflation Rate YoY Prev. 3.7%

Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)

April 22: Tesla (TSLA), post-market

April 30: Robinhood Markets (HOOD), post-market

Token Events

Governance votes & calls

GMX DAO is discussing the establishment of a GMX Reserve on Solana, which would involve bridging $500,000 in GMX to the Solana network and transfering the funds to the GMX-Solana Treasury.

Treasure DAO is discussing handing authority to the core contributor team to wind down and shutter Treasure Chain infrastructure on ZKsync and manage the primary MAGIC-ETH protocol-owned liquidity pool given the “crucial financial situation” of the protocol.

April 17, 11 a.m.: Starknet to host a governance call to discuss how to improve Cairo and the “overall dev experience.”

Unlocks

April 18: Official Trump (TRUMP) to unlock 20.25% of its circulating supply worth $314.23 million.

April 18: Fasttoken (FTN) to unlock 4.65% of its circulating supply worth $84.4 million.

April 18: Official Melania Meme (MELANIA) to unlock 6.73% of its circulating supply worth $10.72 million.

April 18: UXLINK (UXLINK) to unlock 11.09% of its circulating supply worth $16.52 million.

April 18: Immutable (IMX) to unlock 1.37% of its circulating supply worth $10.03 million.

April 22: Metars Genesis (MRS) to unlock 11.87% of its circulating supply worth $126.7 million.

Token Launches

April 17: VeThor (VTHO) to be listed on Bybit.

April 17: Babylon (BABY), AI Rig Complex (ARC), and Alchemist AI (ALCHI) to be listed on Kraken.

April 22: Hyperlane to airdrop its HYPER tokens.

Conferences:

CoinDesk's Consensus is taking place in Toronto on May 14-16. Use code DAYBOOK and save 15% on passes.

Day 3 of 3: NexTech Week Tokyo

April 22-24: Money20/20 Asia (Bangkok)

April 23: Crypto Horizons 2025 (Dubai)

April 23-24: Blockchain Forum 2025 (Moscow)

April 24: Bitwise's Investor Day for Bitcoin Standard Corporations (New York)

April 26: Crypto Vision Conference 2025 (Manilla)

April 26-27: Harvard Blockchain in Action Conference (Cambridge, Mass.)

April 27: N Crypto Conference 2025 (Kyiv)

April 27-30: Web Summit Rio 2025

April 28-29: Blockchain Disrupt 2025 (Dubai)

April 28-29: Staking Summit Dubai

April 29: El Salvador Digital Assets Summit 2025 (San Salvador, El Salvador)

April 29: IFGS 2025 (London)

Token Talk

By Shaurya Malwa

Raydium's platform for introducing tokens, LaunchLab, went live late Wednesday.

It directly competes with Pump.fun, which recently pivoted away from Raydium and started its own exchange, PumpSwap, prompting Raydium to introduce a perceived competing platform.

The Solana ecosystem saw a surge in activity with LaunchLab's debut, creating over 1,750 tokens shortly after it started up. The price of Raydium's RAY token rose as much as 10% in the hours afterwards.

LaunchLab's dynamic joint curve system offers linear, exponential and logarithmic curves — three types of pricing mechanisms that influence how token values change based on user trading — a shift from the fixed-slope pricing models used in memecoin launch platforms.

Integration with major Solana trading apps like Axiom, BullX and JupiterExchange enhances LaunchLab's visibility, potentially driving broader adoption across the ecosystem.

Derivatives Positioning

Open interest in bitcoin futures on the CME reached 138,235 BTC, the highest level the month, as traders re-enter the basis trade. The annualized basis on the CME has climbed to 8%.

With just over a week remaining until the April options expiry on Deribit, the $100,000 strike remains the most dominant, holding over $315 million in notional open interest.

The futures perpetual funding rate turned negative again on Wednesday during Fed Chair Powell’s speech. Throughout the week, funding rates have oscillated between positive and negative, highlighting continued short-term uncertainty around bitcoin’s direction.

Market Movements:

BTC is unchanged from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday at $84,312 (24hrs: +0.4%)

ETH is up 1.26% at $1,593.44 (24hrs: +0.91%)

CoinDesk 20 is unchanged at 2,459.45 (24hrs: +1.36%)

Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is down 1bp bps at 3%

BTC funding rate is at 0.012% (4.3866% annualized) on Binance

DXY is up 0.11% at 99.49

Gold is up 0.35% at $3,338.30/oz

Silver is down 1.49% at $32.44/oz

Nikkei 225 closed +1.35% at 34,377.60

Hang Seng closed +1.61% at 21,395.14

FTSE is down 0.82% at 8,207.47

Euro Stoxx 50 is down 0.56% at 4,938.69

DJIA closed on Wednesday -1.73% at 39,669.39

S&P 500 closed -2.24% at 5,275.70

Nasdaq closed -3.07% at 16,307.16

S&P/TSX Composite Index closed -0.16% at 24,106.80

S&P 40 Latin America closed +0.32% at 2,345.32

U.S. 10-year Treasury rate is up 3 bps at 4.31%

E-mini S&P 500 futures are up 0.9% at 5,353.25

E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 1.02% at 18,573.25

E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are up 0.81% at 40,175.00

Bitcoin Stats:

BTC Dominance: 63.89 (-0.07%)

Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.01889 (0.64%)

Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 905 EH/s

Hashprice (spot): $43.9

Total Fees: 5.78 BTC / $482,907

CME Futures Open Interest: 138,235 BTC

BTC priced in gold: 25.4 oz

BTC vs gold market cap: 7.15%

Technical Analysis

Bitcoin has bounced cleanly off the golden pocket zone, with the 0.618 and 0.65 Fibonacci levels at $74,995 and $73,213 holding as support.

This area marked the first real retracement from the $109,396 high and has shown strong buyer interest.

The bounce also coincided with a breakout from the daily downtrend that has been in place since February — a key shift in structure worth noting.

BTC is now sitting just below the daily 50 and 200 exponential moving averages, which have begun to converge.

These levels often act as decision points, and with the price pressing right up against them, the next move should offer clearer direction. A clean break and hold above would give bulls more control, while a rejection could see prices head back toward the golden pocket.

The weekly 50 EMA — currently $78,071 — is also in play and adds to the confluence just below. As long as BTC holds above the broken trendline and continues to defend this cluster of support, short-term momentum remains constructive.

Crypto Equities

Strategy (MSTR): closed on Wednesday at $311.66 (+0.3%), up 0.98% at $314.70 in pre-market

Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $172.21 (-1.91%), up 0.87% at $173.70

Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$15.58 (+0.84%)

MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $12.32 (-2.07%), up 0.81% at $12.42

Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $6.36 (-2.9%), up 0.31% at $6.38

Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $6.59 (-3.8%), up 1.67% at $6.70

CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $7.28 (+0.0%), up 0.27% at $7.30

CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $11.91 (-0.58%)

Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $31 (-9.88%)

Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $37.19 (-2.16%), up 2.18% at $38

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs:

Daily net flow: -$171.1 million

Cumulative net flows: $35.36 billion

Total BTC holdings ~ 1.10 million

Spot ETH ETFs

Daily net flow: -$12.1 million

Cumulative net flows: $2.26 billion

Total ETH holdings ~ 3.30 million

Source: Farside Investors

Overnight Flows

Chart of the Day

Yesterday, the SOL/ETH ratio surged to a record high, closing at 0.0833 and highlighting sol's continued strength relative to ether.

Ether's weakness also showed in the the ETH/BTC ratio, which slipped to 0.0187, its lowest level since Jan. 6, 2020.

While You Were Sleeping

SOL Jumps 6%, Bitcoin Clings to $84K on Dampened Rate Cut Hopes (CoinDesk): Bitcoin will likely stay between $80,000 and $90,000 as traders await clarity on tariff talks and delayed Fed rate cuts, said BTSE COO Jeff Mei.

Meloni, Europe’s Trump Whisperer, to Try Her Hand on Tariffs (The Wall Street Journal): Italy’s prime minister is expected to press Trump today on the EU’s “zero-for-zero” proposal, which would eliminate tariffs on industrial goods if both sides agree.

Nvidia Chief Jensen Huang Flies Into Beijing for Talks (Financial Times): The visit follows a U.S. decision requiring a license to export Nvidia’s H20 chip to China, prompting the company to warn of a $5.5 billion earnings hit.

China Stocks Face Risk of $800 Billion U.S. Outflows, Goldman Says (Bloomberg): In a full financial decoupling, U.S. investors could dump $800 billion of Chinese stocks while Chinese investors might offload $370 billion of U.S. equities and $1.3 trillion in bonds.

Bitcoin, the Haven Crypto Bulls Hoped for, Is More a Barometer of Risk: Godbole (CoinDesk): Bitcoin, rather than behaving as a digital gold, has solidified as a proxy for risk, validating FX market participants who track it as a gauge of speculative sentiment.

Quantum Computing Group Offers 1 BTC to Whoever Breaks Bitcoin's Cryptographic Key (CoinDesk): A competition is offering one bitcoin to the first person or team to break elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) using Shor’s algorithm on a quantum computer.

In the Ether

XRP might be the next cryptocurrency to get a spot ETF listing in the U.S. after bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), analysts argued this week. However, the Deribit-listed options market,doesn't share this optimism.

As of the time of writing, Deribit's put options tied to XRP were pricier than calls across several timeframes, according to data source Amberdata. That's a sign of persistent downside fears.

A put option provides insurance against price drops, and traders purchase the same when looking to hedge or profit from an expected price drop.

The bias for puts was evident from negative skews across the timeframes. Options skew measures the implied volatility premium (demand) for calls relative to puts.

XRP dived out of an ascending wedge early Wednesday, signaling a possible re-test of recent lows at around $1.6.

Earlier this week, analysts said that XRP has a relatively better order book depth, implying ease in trading large orders at stable prices, compared to Solana's SOL and other tokens. This meant that the payments-focused coin used by Ripple to facilitate cross-border transactions could be the next digital asset to get a spot ETF approval in the U.S.

The "Minsky Moment" is here, according to Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, in a recent interview on CNBC. Novogratz noted that tariffs are playing a key role in reshaping the global security apparatus, while President Trump’s return to the political scene is introducing fresh uncertainty into the markets.

Although equities are down roughly 10% year-to-date, Novogratz believes that’s insufficient given the scale of the global economic shifts underway. “We’re clearly in a risk-off environment,” Novogratz said.

Novogratz explained that bitcoin (BTC) typically performs well amid macroeconomic uncertainty unless risk appetite completely evaporates. He outlined two major narratives driving bitcoin: the macro story, reflected in gold's recent rally, capital flowing out of the U.S. dollar into perceived safe havens; and the adoption story, which remains in its early stages. While institutional and retail adoption is still developing, Novogratz observed that bitcoin is beginning to trade more independently of U.S. equities.

Novogratz also warned that the U.S. is starting to behave like an emerging market, a shift not seen in decades. Interest rates are rising while the U.S. dollar weakens an unusual and concerning combination. While, bitcoin and gold are report cards on financial stewardship, Novogratz remarked.

Novogratz referenced economist Hyman Minsky and said the U.S. could be approaching a "Minsky Moment," where deficits and debt levels finally matter. While sovereign nations have long been able to run large deficits without market backlash, that grace period may be ending.

According to Novogratz, markets are signaling that the Trump-led policy push is too aggressive and unsustainable. Novogratz pointed to the enormous impact of even modest treasury yield increases on the $35 trillion national debt—saying that a 25 or 50 basis point hike has massive implications, potentially costing more on an annualized basis than major savings programs like the Department of Government Efficiency.

Disclaimer: This article, or parts of it, was generated with assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.

Auradine, a maker of computing equipment for bitcoin (BTC) mining and AI applications, said it raised $153 million in a Series C funding round.

The Silicon Valley, California-based company also formed a new business group, AuraLinks AI, focused on open-standards to address cooling requirements of next-generation AI data centers.

AI data centers and BTC mining share similarities in their operational requirements. Given the proliferation of AI in mainstream use in recent years, the subject of data centers is now commonplace in public discourse. This is significant for the cryptocurrency industry because most things that relate to AI data centers could also be applied to bitcoin mining.

"Our dual focus on Bitcoin and AI infrastructure places Auradine at the intersection of pivotal technologies that will reshape computing and energy utilization for decades to come," CEO Rajiv Khemani said in a statement.

The funding round, which took Auradine's total backing to $300 million, was led by StepStone Group and included another contribution from bitcoin miner MARA, as well as Maverick Silicon, Samsung Catalyst Fund and Qualcomm Ventures, among others.

Wednesday’s price action between bitcoin (BTC) and U.S. equities caught investors’ attention highlighting early signs of a fading correlation between the two.

In a typical diversified portfolio, assets are expected to show little to no correlation. For example, gold has continued to hit all-time highs, setting 12 new daily records this year, demonstrating a clear dislocation from U.S. equities.

While bitcoin has often been labeled a leveraged play on the Nasdaq 100, recent trend suggest that relationship may be weakening.

Take BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which trades only during regular U.S. market hours. On Wednesday, it closed up 0.46%, even as the Nasdaq 100 plunged more than 3% , down as much as 4.5% at one point, which would’ve marked its fifth-largest point decline in history.

Strategy (MSTR), a bitcoin-levered play included in the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) finished the day up 0.30%, even as all of the Magnificent Seven tech stocks closed in the red, underscoring the growing divergence.

Throughout the day, the correlation between bitcoin and the Nasdaq fluctuated. For instance, while Fed Chair Jerome Powell was speaking, both assets dropped in tandem. However, bitcoin later rebounded above $84,000, while the Nasdaq continued to hit new intraday lows before recovering into the close.

Powell’s comments leaned more hawkish than expected, citing inflation concerns driven by tariff uncertainty and increases, labeling them an “evolving risk.” Short-term inflation expectations have also moved higher.

Markets were especially unsettled by Powell’s response to the question: Is there a Fed put for the stock market? Is there a Fed put for the stock market? Powell's reply: “I’m going to say no.”

The “Fed put” is a long-held market theory suggesting the Fed will step in to stabilize markets during sharp downturns, a safety net that bitcoin, as a bearer asset, inherently lacks. The open question now: Was Powell bluffing, or is the Fed truly stepping away from its role as market backstop?

President Donald Trump's trade war has introduced significant volatility to financial markets since March, prompting investors to chase assets they believe provide a hedge in this turbulent environment.

What's clear: Bitcoin (BTC) is not one of them, much to the dismay of bullish investors who have long thought of the largest cryptocurrency as digital gold either as a store of value or a haven investment. The reality is that since the onset of the trade war, bitcoin has become more closely correlated with the Aussie dollar-yen pair (AUD/JPY), the foreign exchange market’s risk barometer.

Data from TradingView show the 90-day correlation coefficient between bitcoin and the AUD/JPY pair flipped positive in late February and has since hit the highest since November 2021. The tit-for-tat tariff war between the two nations has led to a staggering 245% cumulative levy on Chinese imports to the U.S., leading to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterating stagflation risks on Wednesday.

The correlation of 0.80 — the maximum value is 1 — is considered strong, implying that the two variables, BTC and AUD/JPY, are closely related in their movements in the same direction.

In contrast, bitcoin's 90-day correlation with gold flipped negative in late February and has since dropped to -0.80, just above the minimum -1. It means the two are closely related in their movements, but in opposite directions.

BTC, a proxy for risk

The Australian dollar, being China-sensitive and the home currency of a commodity-exporting nation, is seen as a risk currency. The yen is a safe haven because Japan has been a net international creditor for decades with near-zero interest rates.

When global markets are optimistic and commodity demand rises, the AUD typically appreciates, reflecting a higher risk appetite among investors and the yen drops. The opposite holds true when they become risk-averse.

Traders, therefore, monitor AUD/JPY as a risk indicator, viewing uptrends as positive signs for risk assets like stocks, and vice versa. Bitcoin, which was already emerging in a comparable role, has strengthened its position. The correlation data indicates that BTC is now as much a proxy for risk sentiment as AUD/JPY.

Project Eleven, a quantum computing research and advocacy firm, has launched the Q-Day Prize, a global competition offering 1 bitcoin (BTC) to the first team able to break an elliptic curve cryptographic (ECC) key, the cryptography which secures the Bitcoin network, using Shor’s algorithm on a quantum computer.

Shor's algorithm is a quantum computing method that efficiently factors large numbers into their prime components, theoretically allowing quantum computers to break cryptographic algorithms like RSA and elliptic-curve cryptography used in Bitcoin and other blockchain networks.

The contest comes as quantum computing advancements mean that a workable quantum computer might only be years away. Project Elevent has also identified more than 10 million bitcoin addresses with non-zero balances potentially at risk of quantum attacks.

The Bitcoin community is aware of the quantum computing threat and is working on solutions.

As CoinDesk previously reported, a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP), titled Quantum-Resistant Address Migration Protocol (QRAMP), was introduced in early April, which suggests enforcing a network-wide migration to post-quantum cryptography to safeguard Bitcoin wallets. This would require a hard fork, however, and getting that sort of consensus would be an uphill battle.

Quantum startup BTQ has also proposed its own solution: a quantum-based alternative to Bitcoin’s Proof of Work called Coarse-Grained Boson Sampling (CGBS).

CGBS works by using quantum computing to generate unique patterns of photons (light particles called bosons), replacing traditional mining puzzles with quantum-based sampling tasks for validation. But this also requires a hard fork, and the appetite for such a change isn’t yet known.

Crypto markets steadily rose in Asian morning hours Thursday after a sell-off the night before as Fed chair Jerome Powell dashed hopes of early rate cuts as global markets reel from the impact of newly-levied U.S. tariffs.

Bitcoin (BTC) added 2% in the past 24 hours, data from CoinGecko shows, touching nearly $84,500. Ether (ETH), XRP, dogecoin (DOGE) and BNB Chain’s BNB added between 1%-3%, with Solana’s SOL leading at 6%.

Down the pecking order, Hyperliquid’s HYPE surged 8.5% to lead gains among midcaps on no immediate catalyst. Celestia’s TIA dumped 4% to lead losses, as selling pressure on tokens with a long unlock schedule is increasing following Mantra DAO’s nosedive earlier this week.

Powell mentioned that the Fed needed more time to see the effects of tariffs play out in the global economy. The same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth, hinting at “stagflation” — a throwback to a sizable portion of the 1970s when the U.S. experienced weak economic activity alongside double-digit inflation.

“Traders had been hoping for the Fed to come in with early rate cuts to bolster markets, but it looks like that's not going to happen anytime soon,” Jeff Mei, COO at BTSE, told CoinDesk in a Telegram message. “In the short term, we expect Bitcoin to continue to trade in the $80,000 - $90,000 range until we see more clarity on tariff negotiations and rate cuts.”

Elsewhere, Augustine Fan, head of insights at SignalPlus, said that Powell's remarks disappointed doves by stressing their focus on protecting against tariff-driven price hikes from driving a long-term rise in inflation expectations.

“Crypto traded water for the most part, though technicals remain more constructive in the near term as long as BTC can hold above 81k, with markets focused on details on Trump’s 1st trade deal when it arrives, as well as the corporate earnings season kicking into high gear starting next week,” Fan said.

Meanwhile, here’s the technical analysis and patterns spotted by machines in the market today.

SOL Price Analysis

SOL experienced a 14.5% price surge from $119.58 to $136.01 between April 11-14, followed by a notable correction.

The overall range of $16.42 represents a 13.7% volatility span.

After reaching peak volume during the April 12-13 rally, momentum indicators show weakening buying pressure.

SOL has established a descending resistance trendline from the $136 high.

Support has formed around $126-$127, with the 50-hour moving average acting as dynamic resistance.

Recent price action suggests consolidation after the rally, with lower highs indicating potential further downside if the $125.67 support breaks.

XRP Price Analysis

Recent volatility suggests XRP may be coiling for a significant move as it tests critical support levels following dramatic price swings.

XRP experienced a dramatic price surge on April 12-13, climbing from $2.00 to a peak of $2.24 (11.7% range), driven by exceptional volume exceeding 240M during the breakout hour.

The rally established strong resistance at $2.18-$2.24, while forming support at $2.08-$2.10.

Recent price action shows a bearish reversal pattern with declining momentum as XRP retraced to $2.09, settling into a consolidation phase.

The 48-hour Fibonacci retracement indicates the price has pulled back to the 61.8% level, suggesting potential stabilization, though declining volumes and the failure to hold above $2.15 signal caution for bulls in the near term.

ETH Price Analysis

Ether experienced significant price volatility with a 7.8% overall range ($119.72) between $1,546.87 and $1,666.50.

The 48-hour analysis reveals a bearish reversal pattern as ETH failed to sustain momentum after reaching $1,690.16, subsequently forming a double top before declining sharply.

Volume analysis shows heightened trading activity during downward movements, particularly during the April 14th selloff where volume exceeded 500,000 units, indicating strong selling pressure.

The 50-hour moving average around $1,625 now serves as immediate resistance, with key support established at $1,585-$1,590.

Token debuts remain a contentious issue, often criticized for their poor execution that allows individuals, supposedly armed with insider information about impending launches, to profit through front-running campaigns.

The latest example is the "Base is for everyone" token announced by Coinbase's Ethereum Layer 2 solution Base on Wednesday. Three crypto wallets bought tokens ahead of the official announcement on X, resulting in significant profits, according to blockchain sleuth Lookonchain.

At around 19:30 UTC on Wednesday, Base announced the debut of its token minted via Zora, an on-chain social network, empowering creativity by turning any content posted on its network into tradable coins. The token quickly rose to a market capitalization of over $15 million, bringing significant gains to at least three crypto addresses that acquired coins before the official announcement on X.

"3 wallets bought a large amount of "Base is for everyone" before @base posted and sold them, making a profit of ~$666K," Lookonchain said on X.

The wallet address 0x0992 invested 1.5 ether (ETH), to purchase 256.39 million units of the token at 12:30 PM UTC and sold the entire coin stash for 108 ETH following the official announcement, pocketing a profit of $168,000 in just over an hour. Wallet address 0x5D9D invested 1 ETH ($1,580) and walked away with $266,000 profit, and another address, labelled 0xBD31, made $231,800.

The token's market capitalization tanked to less than $2 million after that as Base announced another coin for its FarCon poster, sucking out liquidity from the Base is for Everyone token and leaving entrants in the latter with a large loss.

However, valuations have recovered since then, with the market capitalization of Base is for everyone topping the $18 mark as of writing, per data source DEX Screener. Base creator Jesse greenlighted the token, saying, "The goal is to “normalize putting all content on-chain."

Base only posted on Zora

Coinbase clarified that the Base is for everyone coin is not the official cryptocurrency of Base and the layer 2 did not directly sell these. “Base posted on Zora, which automatically tokenizes content,” Coinbase’s spokesperson told CoinDesk.

The legal disclaimer on Zora suggested the same, with Base also clarifying its position on X, saying, it shall never sell these tokens.

“To be clear, Base will never sell these tokens, and ​​these are not official network tokens for Base, Coinbase, or any other related product. The content we share is creative, and we're going to keep bringing culture on-chain,” Base said.

Negative wealth effect

The rapid boom-bust cycles in these smaller tokens often create a net negative wealth effect, allowing a select few to profit significantly while the majority face losses. This often leads to liquidity drain from the broader digital assets market.

The larger the boom-and-bust cycles associated with these coins, the stronger the negative wealth effect.

For instance, this year's debut of LIBRA and TRUMP tokens destroyed millions in investor wealth, marking a major price top in bitcoin and the broader crypto market.

A federal judge agreed to pause an ongoing lawsuit between 18 state attorneys general and a decentralized finance lobbyist group against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday, after the parties noted the SEC's new leadership.

The state AGs, all Republicans, filed the lawsuit alongside the DeFi Education Fund last November after Donald Trump's win in the 2024 presidential election. They allege that the federal securities regulator had exceeded its authority in filing lawsuits against crypto exchanges. In Wednesday's filing, the SEC suggested that Paul Atkins' confirmation as the new agency chair could end the litigation.

"As support, the Defendants state that due to a leadership transition in the Securities and Exchange Commission, this case could potentially be resolved," the filing said.

The judge ordered the parties to file a joint status report within 30 days but paused all deadlines for 60 days.

Originally, the lawsuit argued that the SEC's enforcement actions were intruding on state regulators' abilities to police digital asset firms within their own borders.

"Some States, for instance, have enacted regulatory regimes for financial institutions focused on digital assets; others have required digital asset platforms to obtain money-transmitter licenses and security bonds to guarantee liquidity," the lawsuit said.

"While state regulatory approaches have varied in accordance with local needs, they have consistently endeavored to provide transparent and administrable rules of the road. And Congress has repeatedly declined proposals to give federal agencies broad regulatory power over digital assets."

Congress is expected to pick up market structure legislation that may address federal regulators' roles in overseeing crypto this year, and key committees have already begun holding hearings.

In the meantime, the SEC has already dropped investigations and lawsuits into more than a dozen companies and paused lawsuits against a few others.

IRS broker rule

A separate lawsuit filed by the DeFi Education Fund, the Texas Blockchain Council and the Blockchain Association against the Internal Revenue Service was also dropped on Wednesday. This lawsuit argued that the IRS' DeFi broker rule went beyond the agency's authority.

Trump signed a joint House and Senate resolution under the Congressional Review Act nullifying this rule last week — the first legislative item addressing crypto that he signed as president.

In a filing Wednesday, the parties said the lawsuit had become "moot" after Trump's signing the resolution.

A modest bitcoin rally to a possible challenge of the $86,000 level quickly reversed during U.S. afternoon trading hours on Wednesday as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned on the effects of President Trump's tariff regime.

"The level of the tariff increases announced so far is significantly larger than anticipated," said Powell in a speech. "The same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth."

In other words, stagflation — a throwback to a sizable portion of the 1970s when the U.S. experienced weak economic activity alongside double-digit inflation.

"We may find ourselves in the challenging scenario in which our dual-mandate goals are in tension," continued Powell.

The price of bitcoin (BTC) fell about 2.5% in the minutes following the Powell remarks, now trading at $83,700, down 1.5% over the past 24 hours.

U.S. stocks, which had been trying to mount a comeback from opening declines, also were hit, the Nasdaq slumping 3.4% to a session low.

Powell also mentioned that as crypto is becoming more mainstream, there's a need for a legal framework for stablecoins. He said that banking regulation around crypto will likely be “partially relaxed.”

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee cleared a bill to regulate stablecoin issuers in March, marking the first committee approval and a significant step closer to law in the U.S.

Hawkish Fed weighs on crypto and BTC

"Powell came out extremely hawkish," Quinn Thompson, chief investment officer of hedge fund Lekker Capital, said in a Telegram message. It's notable that Powell downplayed last week's market turmoil characterizing it as "orderly market functioning," he added.

"I would have at least expected him to give a nod to the elevated volatility and ruptures forming in the treasury market but he did not do that," Thompson said.

Powell's tone suggests that investors should temper their expectations for rate cuts in the upcoming meetings, said Thompson, which could weigh on risk assets including crypto.

"It appears a May cut is firmly off the table barring Fed intervention for bad reasons and I wouldn't say June is a lock either," concluded Thompson. "The bull case for crypto and bitcoin specifically is liquidity and policymaker intervention. Both of those seemed very far off based, so it's difficult for me to paint a constructive picture in the immediate term."

UPDATE (April 16, 18:40 UTC): Adds additional comments made by Chair Powell about stablecoins. Adds analyst comment.

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's weekly wrap-up of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. We’re Margaux Nijkerk and Sam Kessler, reporters on CoinDesk’s Tech team.

In this issue:

Can Ethereum Be Truly Private? Developers Push for Encrypted Mempool, Default Privacy

Nvidia Moves AI Supercomputer Production to U.S., Opening New Avenues for Crypto Miners

MIT-Incubated Optimum Raises $11M Seed Round to Build Web3's Missing Memory Layer

Noble’s New ‘AppLayer’ Lets Developers Build Stablecoin Tools on Celestia

This article is featured in the latest issue of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday.

Network News

PRIVACY HEATS UP AMONG ETHEREUM DEVS: When the U.S. government sanctioned the Ethereum-based crypto mixing service Tornado Cash in 2022, it ignited a debate within the crypto community that continues three years later. Advocates argued that complying with the sanctions amounted to censorship — undermining a fundamental cypherpunk principle. President Donald Trump supported the cypherpunks and lifted the sanctions on Tornado Cash in March of this year, but for some Ethereum developers, the situation highlighted a flaw within the network that still exists today: Why should users depend on third-party apps to transact privately on the network? Perhaps emboldened by the recent Tornado Cash developments, Ethereum developers and researchers have once again begun discussing ideas for making the Ethereum network private at its core. "Privacy must not be an optional feature that users must consciously enable — it must be the default state of the network," said PCaversaccio, whose post outlined his vision for a privacy-oriented Ethereum roadmap. "Ethereum's architecture must be designed to ensure that users are private by default, not by exception." In response to PCaversaccio's post, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin left a comment on the network's main developer forum with his own much shorter privacy-oriented Ethereum roadmap. Buterin suggested focusing on privacy for on-chain payments, anonymizing on-chain activity within applications, making communication on the network anonymous, and privatizing on-chain reads. To achieve all of this, Buterin listed various steps like integrating certain third-party privacy features into the core network. — Margaux Nijkerk and Sam Kessler Read more.

NVIDIA AI SUPERCOMPUTER PRODUCTION PLANS COULD BENEFIT CRYPTO MINERS: Nvidia plans to manufacture its next generation of AI chips and supercomputers entirely in the U.S. for the first time, the company said in a statement. The move reflects rising demand for AI infrastructure and a broader push to localize advanced tech manufacturing — one that could also benefit crypto miners repurposing their facilities for AI and high-performance computing (HPC). Many of these operators already have access to the large-scale power and cooling systems needed for data center operations, making them potential players in the growing AI economy. Crypto miners, once singularly focused on hashing power, are increasingly looking for ways to fit into the AI and HPC supply chain. Their existing access to power-dense infrastructure and logistical experience in running industrial-scale operations gives them a foothold as demand for AI computation surges. Recent tariffs by U.S. President Donald Trump, however, is causing anxiety among miners as the policy changes are expected to raise costs on ASIC miners, electrical components, networking hardware and more.— Helene Braun Read more.

MEMORY LAYER OPTIMUM RAISES $11M IN SEED: Optimum, a decentralized, performance-enhancing memory layer for any blockchain, raised an $11 million seed round, inviting its creators from institutions like Harvard and MIT to jump from the world of academia into the commercial crypto arena. The seed round was led by 1kx with participation from Robot Ventures, Finality Capital, Spartan, CMT Digital, SNZ, Triton Capital, Big Brain, CMS, Longhash, NGC, Animoca, GSR, Caladan, Reforge and others. ​​Optimum is building what it calls the missing memory layer of blockchains, making the way data is stored, accessed and propagated, faster, cheaper and truly decentralized, according to a press release. At the core of Optimum’s innovation is a method of decentralized coding for distributed systems, known as Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC), developed by Muriel Médard, an MIT professor. — Ian Allison Read more.

NOBLE’S NEW ‘APPLAYER’ LETS DEVELOPERS BUILD STABLECOIN APPS ON TOP OF CELESTIA: Noble, a blockchain for issuing real-world assets (RWA) and stablecoins, announced Wednesday that it will expand its platform by introducing “AppLayer,” an Ethereum-compatible rollup that allows developers to create their own RWA applications and infrastructure. Noble’s AppLayer aims to let developers build new financial tools optimized for real-world assets like stablecoins — digital assets whose value is pegged to another asset, like the U.S. dollar. AppLayer will leverage Celestia, a data availability blockchain that aims to bring down storage costs for data-intensive blockchain networks. Celestia, like Noble, is plugged into the Cosmos blockchain ecosystem and is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), meaning it can read smart contracts from other Ethereum-based chains. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.

In Other News

Mantra's OM token fell from over $6 to under $0.45 in a matter of hours on Tuesday with no apparent catalyst. CEO John Mullin said in an X post on Wednesday that he would burn his team's tokens to win back the trust of the Mantra community. Mullin said the price drop resulted from exchanges closing OM positions, but members of the crypto community cast blame on the Mantra team. OKX founder Start Xu referred to the incident as "a big scandal." — Jamie Crawley Read more.

Aiming to perhaps replicate Strategy's bitcoin (BTC) playbook, except with solana (SOL), fintech commercial real estate platform Janover (JNVR) has built a SOL stack worth roughly $21 million and seen its share price rise nearly 20-fold in less than a month. The company purchased earlier this week another 80,567 SOL tokens valued at approximately $10.5 million, bringing its total holdings to 163,651. — Krisztian Sandor Read more.

DWF Labs is investing $25 million in World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the decentralized finance protocol backed by U.S. President Donald Trump and his family. The crypto market maker is also entering the U.S. market with a new office in New York City as part of its broader expansion plans, according to a press release. — Francisco Rodrigues Read more.

Regulatory and Policy

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is not yet ready to make a decision on two critical features that issuers of the spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are hoping to add to their products. The regulator delayed a decision on whether it will allow in-kind redemptions for WisdomTree’s Bitcoin Fund (BTCW) and VanEck's Bitcoin Fund (BITB) and Ethereum Fund (ETHW). It also moved its deadline for a decision in regards to a proposal by Grayscale to allow staking its Ethereum Trust (ETHE) and Mini Ethereum Trust (ETH), which the asset manager’s exchange, NYSE Arca had requested in February. — Helene Braun Read more.

Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange OKX is expanding to the U.S. and establishing a new regional headquarters in San Jose, California. The exchange will rolling out access to its platform and its native OKX Wallet to U.S.-based crypto traders.— Cheyenne Ligon Read more.

Search giant Google will only allow cryptocurrency exchanges and software wallets to advertise in the European Union if they hold a license under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, starting April 23, the company announced. Google said advertisers must now obtain a certification from the company and demonstrate they are registered as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) under MiCA. The company also requires advertisers to comply with any additional country-specific legal obligations.—Francisco Rodrigues Read more.

Calendar

April 30-May 1: Token 2049, Dubai

May 14-16: Consensus, Toronto

May 19-23: Solana Accelerate, New York City

May 20-22: Avalanche Summit, London

May 27-29: Bitcoin 2025, Las Vegas

June 30-July 3: EthCC, Cannes

Oct. 1-2: Token2049, Singapore