Decentral Block Post

BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund has been named the best new ETF product by etf.com, as it recorded its highest inflows since Jan. 21. 

On April 23, BlackRock’s iShare Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) was awarded the “Best New ETF” at the annual etf.com ETF awards. In an X post shortly after, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said it “feels right to me.”

IBIT clocks highest inflows in three months

“I’m pretty sure this is how I voted. Both of them did things no one has seen [before],” Balchunas said, also referencing the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) winning the “ETF of the Year” award. Over the past 5 years, VOO is up 89%, according to Google Finance data.

IBIT was also the recipient of the Crypto ETP of the year.

IBIT’s two awards came on the same day IBIT recorded $643.2 million in inflows, according to Farside data. It was the highest inflow day since Jan. 21, when it saw $661.9 million, just a day after US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, when Bitcoin’s spot price hit an all-time high of $109,000.

US federal prosecutors have asked a district judge to sentence Avraham “Avi” Eisenberg, the crypto user convicted of the $110 million exploit of the decentralized exchange Mango Markets in 2022, to at least six and a half years behind bars.

Ahead of Eisenberg’s May 1 sentencing hearing, US prosecutors are petitioning US District Judge Arun Subramanian for Eisenberg to face between 78 and 97 months in prison, according to an April 22 filing in a New York district court.

Prosecutors argue it’s an appropriate sentence for Eisenberg’s April 2024 conviction for committing wire fraud, commodities fraud and commodities manipulation in connection with the Mango Markets exploit and separate charges that he possessed child pornography.

“This sentence is necessary to, among other things, appropriately reflect the gravity of the defendant’s crimes, promote respect for the law, deter the defendant from future criminal activity, and protect the public,” the prosecutors said.

“Fraud that takes over $100 million from investors and effectively shuts down a business is a shocking violation of criminal law, and it necessitates a sentence commensurate with the crime.”

US federal prosecutors have filed statements from hundreds of victims in their case against Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of the defunct crypto lender Celsius Network.

The recently sworn-in interim US Attorney for Manhattan, Jay Clayton, said in an April 23 letter to a Manhattan federal court that he was sharing “more than 200 victim impact statements” collected by his office.

The statements span 418 pages of Celsius users, some named and some only using their initials, detailing the impact that the collapse of the firm had on their lives and how much money they had lost as a result.

Some of the statements detailed victims who said they entrusted their life savings to Celsius, believing Mashinsky’s assurances that the platform was safe.

Others wrote they were dismayed at the amount returned to them as a result of the company’s bankruptcy proceedings, which many said was less than the amount they put into the platform.

The ZKsync Association has confirmed the recovery of $5 million worth of stolen tokens from an April 15 ZKsync security incident involving its airdrop distribution contract.

The hacker agreed to accept a 10% bounty and return 90% of the remaining stolen tokens, transferring the ZKsync Security Council almost $5.7 million across three transfers on April 23.

“We’re pleased to share that the hacker has cooperated and returned the funds within the safe harbor deadline,” ZKsync Association posted to X on April 23, which was later reposted by ZKsync’s X account.

Matter Labs, the company behind the ZKsync protocol, also reposted the news shared on X.

The ZKsync X account previously confirmed that no user funds were compromised.

Russia’s finance ministry and central bank are reportedly planning to launch a crypto exchange for qualified investors under an experimental legal regime.

The platform will be aimed at “super-qualified investors,” Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said during a ministry meeting, according to April 23 reports from Russian media group RBC and Russian news agency Interfax.

“Together with the central bank, we will launch a crypto exchange for super-qualified investors. Crypto assets will be legalized, and crypto operations will be brought out of the shadows,” he said in a statement translated from Russian.

“Naturally, this will not happen domestically, but as part of the operations permitted under the experimental legal regime.”

Anton Siluanov (left) said the Kremlin-backed crypto exchange is only for Russian investors who meet certain income and wealth thresholds. Source: Mehmet Simsek

The Russian central bank announced a proposal on March 12 to allow a limited number of Russian investors with a certain amount of assets to buy and sell cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) under a three-year experimental regime.

Bitcoin has shown resilience compared to the broader financial market amid macroeconomic uncertainty, but analysts caution it’s still too early to know whether the trend will last.

“We’re not quite there yet, but if Bitcoin holds strength through the upcoming CPI, as well as ongoing Powell-related and equity earnings volatility, the decoupling narrative could evolve from “temporary divergence” to “regime change,” Bitfinex analysts said in an April 23 markets note viewed by Cointelegraph.

Bitcoin’s relative strength yet to be proven as structural

The analysts said that while Bitcoin’s (BTC) relative strength against US equities “appears real,” it is yet to be confirmed as structural. The analysts warned that Bitcoin has previously seen short periods of outperformance, only to eventually fall back in line with the broader market.

Cointelegraph recently reported that Bitcoin is increasingly abandoning its stock correlation to copy gold’s upside. At the time of publication, Bitcoin’s price has posted gains of 7.68% over the past 30 days. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are down 6.79% and 8.14%, respectively, as per Google Finance data.

Bitcoin is trading at $93,290 at the time of publication. Source: CoinMarketCap

Over the same period, Nvidia (NVDA), which has outperformed Bitcoin over the past decade, fell 15.4%. The analysts attributed the decline to the “effective ban on advanced chip exports to China and tariff-driven volatility.” In May 2024, Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten said there is a “near zero chance of Nvidia outperforming Bitcoin over the next 10 years.”

Cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin is set to branch further into Southeast Asia, targeting the growing crypto market in Thailand. 

KuCoin is planning to launch a crypto exchange platform offering digital assets and related products in the country, according to an April 23 announcement. 

ERX Company Ltd, Thailand’s first Securities and Exchange Commission-supervised digital token exchange, has rebranded as KuCoin Thailand effective April 22, it stated. 

The crypto exchange will operate under ERX, which recently received a crypto exchange license from the Thai financial regulator. 

“We’re strengthening our ability to offer localized solutions tailored to the Thai market,” said ERX chief executive Att Tongyai Asavanund.

A majority of crypto users are willing to allow artificial intelligence agents to manage part of their investment portfolios, according to the results of a recent CoinGecko survey.

Among the 2,632 crypto participants surveyed, 87% said they would let AI agents manage at least a tenth of their crypto portfolio, CoinGecko’s April 23 report shows.

Around half the respondents said they were willing to let an AI agent manage half their portfolio or less.

“This suggests that despite having doubts as to how safe or secure AI agents are, crypto users are still mainly curious about the technology and want to try using them for trading or investing,” CoinGecko research analyst Yuqian Lim said.

At the same time, around 36% of survey participants said they would allow AI agents to manage the majority of their holdings. A smaller group, roughly 14.5%, were willing to leave their entire crypto portfolio in the digital hands of an AI agent.

The host of The Wolf Of All Streets podcast, Scott Melker, says he’s received word that his face and name are being impersonated by scammers, with at least one victim duped out of $4 million. 

On April 23, the crypto investor said, “I’m sick,” reporting that he’d been contacted by a private investigator revealing that a client of his was scammed for $4 million by a Nigerian group using his name and face as bait. 

“They’ve apparently scammed a number of people,” Melker said, adding, “They sent him a fake driver’s license to prove it was me,” and used his X avatar as the photo.

The scammers used AI to generate the fake ID and used a fake but convincing-looking email account. 

“They do zoom calls with AI,” which are “apparently sophisticated,” said Melker, who added that the scammers have also spoofed accounts of his wife and kids to support identity confirmation. 

The Los Angeles Police Department has recovered $2.7 million worth of Bitcoin mining machines it alleges were stolen by a crime ring in a heist at the city’s airport.

The LAPD said on April 22 that detectives from its Cargo Theft Unit, along with the city’s Port Police, the railroad-based Union Pacific Police, and the city’s Airport Police, arrested Oscar David Borrero-Manchola and Yonaiker Rafael Martinez-Ramos over the thefts.

Authorities claimed the pair are “prominent members” of a South American crime ring tied to the theft and sale of stolen goods in and around Los Angeles.

The LAPD said searches of storage unit facilities in the San Fernando Valley, northeast of downtown Los Angeles, recovered $4 million worth of stolen goods, including the Bitcoin (BTC) mining rigs taken from Los Angeles International Airport “as the shipment was about to be loaded onto a plane headed to Hong Kong.”

Detectives also found and seized over $1.2 million in allegedly stolen tequila, clothing, shoes, speakers, coffee, body wash, and pet food.

Twenty One Capital, a new Bitcoin treasury company led by Strike founder Jack Mallers with the support of Tether, SoftBank and Cantor Fitzgerald, is looking to supplant Michael Saylor’s Strategy to become the “superior vehicle for investors seeking capital-efficient Bitcoin exposure.”

Twenty One revealed it plans to launch with 42,000 Bitcoin (BTC) (worth $3.9 billion) with roughly 23,950 BTC coming from Tether, 10,500 BTC from Softbank and 7,000 BTC from Bitfinex, which will be converted into equity at $10 per share, according to an April 23 statement.

The firm is seeking a public listing via a blank-check merger with Cantor Equity Partners and will trade under the ticker XXI on the Nasdaq once it finalizes an agreement with investors to raise $585 million through convertible bonds and equity financing.

“Our mission is simple: to become the most successful company in Bitcoin, the most valuable financial opportunity of our time. We’re not here to beat the market, we’re here to build a new one,” said Mallers, the founder and CEO of Bitcoin payments-focused firm Strike.

“A public stock, built by Bitcoiners, for Bitcoiners.”

Twenty One specifically compared its business model to Strategy’s in an investor presentation to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, claiming it is potentially a “superior vehicle for investors seeking capital-efficient Bitcoin exposure.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has released its annual report detailing complaints and losses due to scams and fraud involving cryptocurrency in 2024.

According to the report released on April 23, the IC3 received more than 140,000 complaints referencing cryptocurrency in 2024, resulting in roughly $9.3 billion in losses. The bureau reported that individuals over the age of 60 had been the most affected by crypto-related fraud, with roughly 33,000 complaints and $2.8 billion in losses.

Source: FBI

“Last year saw a new record for losses reported to IC3, totaling a staggering $16.6 billion,” said the report. “Fraud represented the bulk of reported losses in 2024, and ransomware was again the most pervasive threat to critical infrastructure, with complaints rising 9% from 2023," notes the report, adding that, as a group, those over the age of 60 suffered the most losses and submitted the most complaints.

The report added that the resultant losses had increased roughly 66% since 2023, from roughly $5.6 billion to $9.3 billion. The most significant percentage of losses occurred due to crypto investment schemes, while the largest number of complaints related to “sextortion” schemes, in which fraudsters manipulated photos and videos to create explicit content. Other scams included schemes involving the use of crypto ATMs or kiosks.

Related: Crypto scam uses trade war fears to lure victims, Canadian watchdogs warn

Sovereign wealth funds and other institutions were accumulating Bitcoin (BTC) during April 2025, while retail traders were exiting the markets via exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and spot markets, according to John D’Agostino, the head of strategy at Coinbase Institutional.

During a recent appearance on CNBC, the Coinbase executive likened Bitcoin to gold and said that many institutional buyers bought BTC as a hedge against currency inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty. The Coinbase executive said:

"Bitcoin is trading on its core characteristics, which again are similar to gold. You've got scarcity, immutability, and non-sovereign asset portability. So it's trading the way people who believe in Bitcoin would like it to trade."

"When you do the work, there's a very short list of assets that mirror the characteristics of gold. Bitcoin is on that shortlist," the executive added.

Governments and financial institutions are increasingly adopting Bitcoin to protect purchasing power and the value of their treasuries in the face of macroeconomic shocks and geopolitical tensions.

Bitcoin recently broke back above the $90,000 level and has reclaimed its ‘decoupling’ narrative. Source: CoinMarketCap

Related: Bitcoin holders back in profit as new capital enters the market — Is $100K BTC price next?

Official Trump (TRUMP) jumped 52% on April 23 after the announcement of an exclusive in-person dinner for the top tokenholders with US President Donald Trump. For some crypto advocates, this marks the end of the bear market, especially as Bitcoin (BTC) bounced back above $93,000, but others raise suspicions on how sustainable the TRUMP memecoin rally really is.

From a purely performance perspective, the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin has been a disappointment. After soaring above $75 on launch day, its gains quickly disappeared as investors noticed the high concentration of tokens and the short-term vesting period. 

At first sight, it is difficult to justify TRUMP’s current market capitalization of $2.6 billion, given that 80% of the supply was allocated to founders and entities controlled by Trump.

Official Trump (TRUMP) market capitalization, USD. Source: CoinMarketCap

For comparison, well-established projects such as Arbitrum (ARB), Jupiter (JUP), and Maker (MKR) hold a capitalization below $1.6 billion. Those token valuations derive from buybacks using treasury reserves or direct benefits in staking and DeFi mechanisms. For instance, Arbitrum, a leading Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution, holds $2.4 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL). 

Jupiter, the leading decentralized exchange (DEX) on Solana, boasts $2.3 billion in deposits and has accrued $76.6 million in fees over the past 30 days, according to DefiLlama data. Meanwhile, Sky (formerly Maker), the project behind the extremely successful DAI stablecoin, holds $5.9 billion TVL and $28.6 million in 30-day fees.

Traders are embracing diametrically opposed exchange-traded fund (ETF) strategies in a bid to navigate one of the most unpredictable financial markets in recent history, according to data from Bloomberg Intelligence. 

The year-to-date has seen record inflows to ETFs providing leveraged long exposure to volatile assets such as stocks and cryptocurrencies, as well as funds holding risk-off assets such as cash and gold, the data shows. 

“[T]here's basically record flows going into leveraged long ETFs but also cash and gold ETFs as people buy the dip and hedge the dip at the same time. May the best degen win!,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas said in an April 23 post on the X platform.

Leveraged ETFs are funds that aim to multiply the daily performance of assets like stocks or crypto, often by two or three times.

In 2025, leveraged long ETFs attracted net inflows of roughly $6 billion, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Meanwhile, inflows into cash and gold funds approached roughly $4 billion. 

SOL Strategies, a Canadian investment company, issued $500 million in convertible notes to buy and stake in Solana (SOL) tokens.

The $500 million issuance was made to a singular investor, ATW Partners, a New York-based investment firm. The company provides growth equity and structured capital to companies across public and private markets, a spokesperson for SOL Strategies told Cointelegraph.

A spokesperson for SOL Strategies said the company is focused on building institutional-grade infrastructure for Solana, rather than reacting to short-term price volatility.

According to an April 23 announcement, the yield generated from staking will accrue back to both SOL Strategies and ATW Partners. SOL Strategies is a publicly traded company listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange. Its share price has risen 25.3% on the day, according to Google Finance.

Related: Astra Fintech commits $100M for Solana growth in Asia

United States exchanges are betting big on cryptocurrency derivatives as market turbulence from US President Donald Trump’s looming trade war propels demand for the financial instruments. 

Since late 2024, exchanges including Coinbase, Robinhood, Kraken, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group have been listing new types of crypto derivatives and mulling multibillion-dollar acquisitions as they vie for control of the burgeoning market. 

In April, the stakes became even higher after Trump’s unveiling of sweeping tariff plans sent financial markets into a frenzy and spiked crypto derivatives trading volumes. 

“Institutional and sophisticated retail traders are increasingly turning to crypto derivatives platforms to navigate macroeconomic risks and uncertainty brought on by escalated tariff policies and global trade tensions,” David Siemer, CEO of asset manager Wave Digital Assets, told Cointelegraph. 

Consequently, US exchanges are “experiencing record-breaking surges in trading activity and are expanding their investment offerings with the promise of regulatory clarity,” Siemer said.

Key Takeaways: 

XRP has gained 25% since April 7, and its open interest has risen by 32%.

Positive spot market activity contrasts with a neutral futures funding rate, highlighting a tug-of-war between traders.

Analysts still have double-digit price targets for XRP.

XRP's (XRP) price fell to a year-to-date low of $1.61 on April 7, but has gained 25% over the past two weeks as the broader crypto market recovered and XRP open interest surged.

The Alabama Securities Commission, a financial regulator for the US state, dropped its lawsuit against crypto exchange Coinbase, which accused the company of violating securities laws by offering staking services to clients.

The regulator cited the ongoing work between the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the crypto industry to develop clear crypto regulations as the primary reason for dropping the litigation, according to the April 23 legal filing shared by Coinbase's chief legal officer, Paul Grewal.

The filing read:

"The SEC has announced the formation of a new task force to, among other things, provide guidance for the promulgation of rules regarding the regulation of cryptocurrency products and services."

"Due to the foregoing, the Commission believes it would be apt to allow policymakers time to consider regulatory constructs," the filing continued.

The Alabama Securities Commission filed its lawsuit against Coinbase in June 2023, alongside state regulators from California, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Key Takeaways:

Bitcoin short-term holders are back in profit, increasing chances for a rally to $100,000.

Long-term holders added 363,000 BTC since February, with new buyers injecting capital in April.

Bitcoin sell pressure risk exists at $97,000, where 392,000 BTC could be sold.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) surge above $91,700 on April 22 pushed its value above the short-term realized price or cost basis. This implies that a majority of short-term holders (STHs) are currently back in profit.

Officials with the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) crypto task force met with the El Salvador National Commission on Digital Assets (CNAD) to discuss regulation and a proposed cross-border sandbox.

In an April 22 memo, the SEC’s crypto task force reported meeting with officials from El Salvador, Perkin Law Firm, and former Goldman Sachs partner Heather Shemilt as part of the commission’s outreach to the industry. The representatives discussed US-El Salvador cross-border collaboration on crypto regulation at a time when the relationship between the two countries was in the national spotlight over immigration and US deportations to an El Salvador prison.

According to the meeting notes, El Salvador’s national commission agreed to collaborate with the SEC to establish a sandbox pilot program, capped at $10,000 for each scenario. The program proposed allowing brokers licensed in the US to obtain a digital asset license in El Salvador and issue “non-securities” tokens in collaboration with a local company.

Many in the crypto industry see Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele as behind the country’s efforts to adopt cryptocurrency since he announced legislation to recognize Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender in 2021. Bukele met with US President Donald Trump on April 14, discussing details of a $6 million deal in which the Trump administration has been sending immigrants, whose legal status to be in the US is unclear, to prisons in El Salvador. Some of these deportations violated orders from federal judges.

Related: Bitcoin takes back seat as Trump, Bukele focus on trade and immigration

Luxury hospitality platform Dorsia is rolling out crypto payments for clients in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and six Arab nations.

The payments feature is being enabled through a partnership with MoonPay, the companies told Cointelegraph. With the integration, users will be able to book luxury travel experiences and complete transactions directly in USDC (USDC) and Solana-based tokens through the Dorsia app.

“[…] integrating crypto payments is a natural next step in aligning with the evolving preferences of our members,” Marc Lotenberg, founder and CEO of Dorsia, said in an interview.

Dorsia is the latest luxury firm to turn to crypto services for high-net-worth individuals. The industry has been highly active in the Web3 space over the past few years, exploring crypto on-ramps and customer engagement features, such as non-fungible tokens and metaverses.

Luxury carmakers Lamborghini and Ferrari, and watchmakers like Patek Philippe, are a few companies accepting payments in cryptocurrencies.

Key points:

Bitcoin’s rally is backed by solid institutional buying in the spot BTC ETFs.

A rally above the $95,000 level could be difficult, but analysts’ end-of-year price projections now extend to $200,000.

Select altcoins are showing signs of a price bottom.

Bitcoin (BTC) price rallied close to the $95,000 resistance level on April 23 as the cryptocurrency finds support from rising spot BTC ETF inflows and positive macroeconomic news in the United States. According to Farside Investors, the funds recorded net inflows of $381.3 million on April 21 and $912.7 million on April 22.

United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently called for “Bretton Woods institutions,” such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to reorient themselves, a signal that the global monetary order could be shifting.

Speaking at the Institute of International Finance (IIF) on April 23, Bessent called on the IMF and the World Bank to correct trade imbalances and protect the value of fiat currencies against exchange rate risk.

"The Bretton Woods institutions must step back from their sprawling and unfocused agendas," Bessent said. He added:

"The IMF's mission is to promote international monetary cooperation, facilitate the balanced growth of international trade, encourage economic growth, and discourage harmful policies like competitive exchange rate depreciation."

Bessent's call for the IMF to correct trade imbalances between countries, specifically the US and China, coincides with a decline in the US dollar to three-year lows, $36 trillion in US government debt, and stiff economic competition from China.

The Dollar Currency Index (DXY), a measure of the US dollar’s strength relative to other major fiat currencies, plunges to three-year lows. Source: TradingView

Investor and hedge fund manager Ray Dalio argues that the world is experiencing a global macroeconomic shift that will upend the post-WWII financial order and eventually replace the US dollar as the global reserve currency, potentially with a digital form of money.

Key points:

Bitcoin ETF inflows obliterated the 2025 average on April 22.

ETF performance remains tightly dependent on BTC price action, with the turnaround following six-week highs in BTC/USD.

ETFs themselves are gaining influence, with one commentator arguing that they can “determine” exchange activity.

Bitcoin (BTC) institutional investors piled over eleven times the all-time average into the US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on April 22.

Some of the top holders of Donald Trump’s memecoin could come out of the shadows to appear for a dinner the US President is planning to host on May 22.

As of April 23, the official Trump memecoin (TRUMP) website offered the opportunity for the “top 220” holders to meet the president in person at his golf club in Washington, DC. At the time of publication, the guest list for the event was unclear, but the project stated any tokenholder who applied had to pass a background check, “can not be from a [Know Your Customer] watchlist country,” and could not have any additional guests.

The memecoin, which the then-president-elect launched on Jan. 17 before taking office, has been heavily criticized by the crypto industry and lawmakers for potentially allowing foreign officials and interest groups to send money directly to the US President without proper disclosure and oversight. The team behind the project controls 80% of the total supply, while the identities of many of the other top tokenholders are mainly unknown.

Top TRUMP memecoin holders as of April 23. Source: TRUMP token

The price of the TRUMP memecoin surged roughly 52% from $9.30 to $14.20 shortly after the dinner announcement. After the token launched on Jan. 17, the project’s market capitalization increased to roughly $15 billion before dropping more than 50% by Jan. 20.

Related: US lawmaker says TRUMP coin could risk national security

For years, crypto investors have looked to the four-year cycle, anchored around Bitcoin’s halving events, as a kind of sacred roadmap. The theory goes: Every four years, Bitcoin’s supply is cut in half, triggering a bullish frenzy, followed by a euphoric peak, a brutal crash, and then a slow recovery. Rinse, repeat.

But what if that model is starting to break? That is what onchain analyst James Check suggests.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Check said that the tidy frameworks that once defined Bitcoin’s market behavior are no longer as useful in today’s macro-driven, institutionally influenced environment.

Rather than labeling the current market as “bull” or “bear,” Check paints a more nuanced picture. Bitcoin, he argues, is now driven more by macroeconomic conditions and investor psychology than by predictable cycles or halving dates. As such, the lines between bull and bear get blurry.

“The world doesn’t operate on four-year cycles,” he says. “You can imagine a headline tomorrow where suddenly all these tariffs get pulled back […] and markets start to move. I can just as easily construct a case where the next headline could send all risk assets into a pretty nasty decline.”

If you’re following developments in the cryptocurrency market, you’ve likely noticed that Coinbase Derivatives has introduced XRP futures contracts to its US derivatives exchange. This move is part of a broader trend where regulated platforms are expanding access to futures trading, giving investors new ways to engage with digital assets like XRP (XRP).

But what exactly are XRP futures? And how do you get involved as an investor or trader?

Let’s take a closer look.

What are XRP futures?

XRP futures are standardized financial contracts that allow you to agree to buy or sell XRP at a predetermined price on a specific future date. Rather than trading the actual token, you’re trading a contract that tracks the price of XRP.

These contracts are overseen by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), meaning they operate within a regulated framework. That adds a level of oversight and structure that appeals to many investors, particularly those wary of the risks tied to unregulated platforms.

Riot Platforms has used its massive Bitcoin stockpile as collateral to secure a $100 million credit facility from Coinbase as the cryptocurrency miner eyes continued expansion. 

The $100 million loan from Coinbase’s credit arm marks Riot’s “first Bitcoin-backed facility,” CEO Jason Les said in an April 23 statement.

Les said the credit line will be used to fund general corporate operations and support the company’s “strategic growth initiatives.”

Source: Riot Platforms

The credit line is scheduled to mature in one year’s time, but could be extended for an additional year. The loan carries an annual interest payment of at least 9%, based on the current upper limit of the federal funds rate plus 4.5%. 

Crucially, the funding amount “will be secured by a portion of [Riot Platforms’] total Bitcoin holdings,” the company said.

Ethereum is entering one of its most precarious periods since its inception. Usage on the base layer is plummeting, core metrics are nearing multi-year lows, and even co-founder Vitalik Buterin is proposing a radical architectural overhaul. 

Institutions aren’t waiting to see how it plays out. Blockchain data shows that long-time supporters such as Galaxy Digital and Paradigm have been slashing their Ether (ETH) holdings in recent weeks. 

So far in April, Ethereum’s base-layer activity has continued to collapse. Ethereum’s network fees are dropping, and inflation has been rising. Though layer-2 networks continue to develop, they’re cannibalizing the base layer’s value capture.

But the story isn’t entirely about Ethereum’s collapse. Some whales are treating this downturn as a rare buying opportunity. Even those who are selling Ether can’t fully let it go.

Ethereum gets dumped by institutions, but for how long?

Institutions are dumping Ethereum, but it’s the ex they keep checking on. It’s not entirely out of the picture — just benched while they explore options like Solana (SOL).