Welcome to your Good Friday edition of the daybook. With markets on a shortened schedule for the Easter holiday, today’s update is shortened as well. CoinDesk’s Crypto Daybook Americas will be back to its regular size on Monday, April 21. Enjoy the holiday!

By Francisco Rodrigues (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

It’s Easter. Traditional markets are closed in many parts of the world and plenty of people are taking a break from work, and that’s keeping crypto markets in check as well. The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), a measure of the biggest, most active cryptocurrencies, has gained less than 0.1% in the past 24 hours with bitcoin (BTC) up just 0.1%.

That’s a pretty muted response to calls from President Donald Trump for the removal of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Trump criticized Powell over his reluctance to cut interest rates, further adding to the economy uncertainty that has left bitcoin treading water and seen Wall Street piling onto gold.

Trump, on his social media platform Truth Social, said Powell was “too late” in lowering interest rates, saying his “termination cannot come fast enough!” The President’s words come after Powell said the central bank sees unemployment and inflation rising because of the tariffs Trump imposed on most other countries.

The tit-for-tat has further raised uncertainty, to the point the S&P 500 closed the shortened trading week up just 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 0.1%.

«Right now, markets are extremely reactionary to White House decision making and are poised to remain that way for the foreseeable future,” Ira Auerbach, head of tandem at Offchain Labs and former head of digital assets as Nasdaq, told CoinDesk.

“Trump’s push for rate cuts amid tariff-driven inflation risks could reignite bitcoin’s original ‘hedge against eroding purchasing power’ narrative. Its recent risk-off behavior may be short-lived as monetary policy uncertainty intensifies.»

For the time being, though, the hedge against currency debasement and uncertainty appears to be gold. The precious metal’s recent bull run has meant that, over the last 20 years, it’s outperforming the S&P 500. That’s including dividends.

For crypto investors, signals are mixed. While on the macro front uncertainty reigns, under the Trump administration regulatory outlook has been improving and institutions have shown more comfort with the space.

“It is probably sound to ‘let the dust settle’ as tariff implementations and bilateral negotiations unfold,” dYdX Foundation CEO Charles d’Haussy told CoinDesk. “Market participants’ consensus seems to signal central banks’ action past the summer.” Stay alert!

What to Watch

• Crypto:
  • April 18: Pepecoin (PEP), a layer-1, proof-of-work blockchain, undergoes its second halving, reducing block rewards to 15,625 PEP.
  • 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 p.m.: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Crypto Task Force Roundtable on «Key Considerations for Crypto Custody«.
• Macro
  • April 18, 10 a.m.: Argentina’s Torcuato Di Tella University releases April consumer confidence data.
    • Consumer Confidence Prev. 44.1
  • April 22, 8:30 p.m.: Statistics Canada releases Mach producer price inflation data.
    • PPI MoM Prev. 0.4%
    • PPI YoY Prev. 4.9%
  • April 22, 6 p.m.: Fed Governor Adriana D. Kugler will deliver a speech titled «Transmission of Monetary Policy.»
• Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
  • April 22: Tesla (TSLA), post-market
  • April 30: Robinhood Markets (HOOD), post-market

Token Events

• Governance votes & calls
  • Treasure DAO is discussing handing authority to the core contributor team to wind down and shut down Treasure Chain infrastructure on ZKsync and manage the primary MAGIC-ETH Protocol-Owned Liquidity pool given the “crucial financial situation” of the protocol.
• 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.
  • April 30: Optimism (OP) to unlock 1.89% of its circulating supply worth $20.74 million.
  • May 1: Sui (SUI) to unlock 2.28% of its circulating supply worth $156.87 million.
  • May 1: ZetaChain (ZETA) to unlock 5.67% of its circulating supply worth $10.32 million.
• Token Launches
  • April 22: Hyperlane to airdrop its HYPER tokens.
  • April 22: BNB to be listed on Kraken.

Conferences:

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

• The memecoin trading frenzy doesn’t appear to over quite yet. Since token-launch protocol Pump.fun introduced its trading platform PumpSwap in March, volumes have skyrocketed.
• According to Artemis data, Solana-based Pump.fun was seeing roughly $110 million of trading volume a day before the PumpSwap debut. That figure exploded to $650 million on April 17, with $444 million being traded on PumpSwap.
• Daily transaction volumes on the platform now top 40,000, roughly double the figures seen before PumpSwap’s launch, Dune data shows.
• The heightened trading volume helped Pump.fun’s 24-hour revenue top that of layer-1 network Tron, bringing in roughly $2 million over the period. The figure is also above that of platforms like Hyperliquid and Aave.
• Outside of Solana, other networks have seen their share of trading activity. Even Nasdaq-listed exchange Coinbase found itself embroiled in alleged front-running after three wallets bought its “Base is for everyone” token before the launch was announced.

Market Movements:

• BTC is down 0.69% from 4 p.m. ET Thursday at $84,550 (24hrs: +0.30%)
• ETH is up 0.15% at $1,587.85 (24hrs: -0.36%)
• CoinDesk 20 is up 1% at 2,460.30 (24hrs: +0.2%)
• Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is down 15 bps at 2.98%
• BTC funding rate is at 0.0069% (7.5927% annualized) on Binance

• DXY is unchanged at 99.38
• Gold is down 0.54% at $3308.8/oz
• Silver is down 1.55% at $32.42/oz
• Nikkei 225 closed +1.03% at 34,730
• Hang Seng closed +1.61% at 21,395
• FTSE closed Thursday at 8275.66.
• Euro Stoxx 50 is down 0.63% at 4935.34
• DJIA closed on Thursday -1.33% at 39,142
• S&P 500 closed +0.13% at 5282.7
• Nasdaq Composite closed -0.13% at 16,286.45,
• S&P/TSX Composite Index closed +0.36% at 16,286.45
• S&P 40 Latin America is up 1.64% at 2,383.75
• E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 0.13% at 5,312.75
• E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 0.02% at 18,380
• E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are down 1.31% at 39,329

Bitcoin Stats:

• BTC Dominance: 63.91 (-0.18%)
• Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.019 (0.54%)
• Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 913 EH/s
• Hashprice (spot): $44.32
• Total Fees: 6.01 BTC
• CME Futures Open Interest: 141,280
• BTC priced in gold: 25.5 oz.
• BTC vs gold market cap: 7.23%

Crypto Equities

• Strategy (MSTR): closed on Thursday at $317.20 (1.78%), down 0.30% at $316.35 in pre-market
• Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $175.03 (1.64%)
• Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$15.36 (-1.41%)
• MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $12.66 (2.76%), up 0.16% at $12.68
• Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $6.46 (1.57%)
• Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $6.63 (0.61%), up 0.29% at $6.65
• CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $7.51 (3.16%), up 0.27% at $7.53
• CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $12.04 (1.09%), up 0.42% at 12.09
• Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $32.49 (4.79%), up 2.60% at $33.33
• Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $36.58 (-1.64%), up 4.98% at $38.40

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs:

• Daily net flow: $ 106.9 million
• Cumulative net flows: $ 35.5 billion
• Total BTC holdings ~ 1.11 million

Spot ETH ETFs

• Daily net flow: $ 0 million
• Cumulative net flows: $ 2.26 billion
• Total ETH holdings ~ 3.31 million

Source: Farside Investors

Overnight Flows

While You Were Sleeping

• U.S. Will Abandon Ukraine Peace Efforts if No Progress Made Soon, Rubio Says (Reuters): After Paris talks, the Secretary of State said Washington may shift focus unless it sees within days that a deal is achievable in the next few weeks.
• Ukraine Says It Has Signed the Outline of a Minerals Deal With the U.S. (CNBC): The memorandum of intent signed Thursday will serve as the basis for what Scott Bessent says is an 80-page agreement that will be signed by April 26.
• HashKey Capital to Debut Asian XRP Tracker Fund With Ripple as Anchor Investor (CoinDesk): The HashKey XRP Tracker Fund will give professional investors XRP exposure.
• Deutsche Bank Sees More China Clients Moving Out of U.S. Assets (Bloomberg): Chinese commercial investors are shifting from U.S. Treasuries to eurozone bonds, Japanese debt and gold as concerns over U.S. trade policy mount, says Deutsche Bank’s Lillian Tao.
• Japan Does Not Manipulate FX to Weaken the Yen, Finmin Says (Reuters): Japan last intervened to strengthen the yen, not weaken it, the finance minister said in response to Donald Trump’s accusation it is manipulating the currency to boost exports.

In the Ether

HashKey Capital announced what it says is the first investment fund in Asia designed to track the performance of XRP, the digital asset used in Ripple’s global payment infrastructure.

The new fund, called the HashKey XRP Tracker Fund, will be open to professional investors and will allow exposure to XRP without the need to manage the asset directly. It will offer the ability to buy through cash and in-kind subscriptions, and offers monthly liquidity.

Ripple will be an early backer of the fund. The investment deepens its strategic ties with HashKey, which already has Hong Kong-listed spot ETFs for bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH).

The company will continue to partner with Ripple on additional financial products, Vivien Wong, a partner at HashKey Capital, said in a statement. One possibility includes tokenizing a money market fund on the XRP Ledger.

Ripple’s Asia-Pacific managing director Fiona Murray said the partnership with HashKey is part of a broader push to bring more regulated crypto products to institutions in the region.

Bitcoin (BTC) was treading water just below $85,000 late Thursday as tensions between U.S. President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell added another layer of uncertainty for investors.

Markets dipped on Wednesday after hawkish comments from Powell, who criticized Trump’s tariffs policy, saying that it would likely result in a slowing economy and rising prices — what economists call “stagflation.» In his remarks, Powell made clear his larger focus for now would be on prices, suggesting tighter Fed policy than otherwise thought.

Trump — who nominated the former investment banker and lawyer as Fed chair during his first term (Powell was given a second four-year term by President Biden) — has expressed his displeasure with Powell since retaking the White House. Powell, though, who is set to remain atop the central bank until May 2026, has repeatedly stated his determination to finish his term and suggested the president has no standing to fire him.

On Thursday, the WSJ reported that Trump has been privately discussing firing Powell for months, according to people familiar with the matter. Former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh is reportedly waiting in the wings as Powell’s replacement, but Warsh has lobbied the president not to move against the Fed chair, according to the story.

Joining Warsh in that warning is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said the move could roil already shaky U.S. markets as the central bank is supposed to be independent from political influences.

Odds of Trump removing Powell this year on the blockchain-based prediction market Polymarket rose to 19%, the highest reading since the contract’s late January launch.

Trump’s comments came on the back of the European Central Bank (ECB) cutting key interest rates for the seventh consecutive occasion on Thursday as it warned of a deteriorating growth outlook.

More pressure on markets came from the latest Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index, published Thursday morning, which showed a nosedive in activity this month, sinking to its lowest level (-26.4) in two years. Meanwhile, the prices paid index climbed to its highest reading since July 2022, adding to concerns about the Trump administration’s large-scale tariff policy pushing the U.S. economy into stagflation.

The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq stock indexes traded mostly flat during the day.

A look at the crypto market showed BTC and Ethereum’s ETH up 0.8% over the past 24 hours. Most assets in the CoinDesk 20 Index traded higher during the day, with bitcoin cash (BCH), NEAR and AAVE leading gains.

How bitcoin traders position amid heightened fear on Wall Street ?

Bitcoin has stabilized between $83k and $86k with traders chasing bullish bets while still seeking downside protection.

On Deribit, traders are actively chasing calls at the 90k to $100k strikes expiring in May and June, the exchange said in a market update Thursday. The demand for calls indicates expectations for a continued price rally.

Some of these bullish bets have been funded by premiums collected by selling put options.

At the same time, there has been renewed interest in buying put options at $80k expiring this month, representing preparations for potential price declines. Buying a put option is akin to purchasing insurance against price slides.

The diverse two-way flow comes as the VIX, Wall Street’s fear gauge measuring the 30-day implied volatility, still remains well above its 50-day average, despite the pullback from recent highs above 50.

The VIX is warning that the macro situation is still unraveling rather than resolving, the exchange said on X.