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 2372.84, down 1.4% (-32.6) since 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

Two of the 20 assets are trading higher.

Leaders: HBAR (+2.5%) and ICP (+0.7%).

Laggards: LTC (-4.9%) and FIL (-4.5%).

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

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Umoja has released a product that allows Coinbase wrapped BTC (cbBTC) token holders to earn a 6% yield on layer-2 network Base.

Umoja achieves its yield by tapping into a range of centralized and decentralized exchange strategies including covered calls and arbitrage, which involves buying an asset at on one venue and simultaneously selling it for a higher price on another venue.

It’s worthing noting that cbBTC is a wrapped token and not bitcoin (BTC) itself, it is an erc20 token backed 1:1 by bitcoin held at Coinbase.

The Umoja protocol supports a number of Yield Vault Tokens (YVTs) collateralized by cryptocurrencies (including real world asset tokens).

One of those YVTs is yBTC, which is minted once users deposit cbBTC on the protocol.

Acquiring a yield on BTC using DeFi strategies has been a controversial topic for bitcoin maximalists, who are generally opposed to the DeFi sector and altcoins.

However, as BTC continues its plunge from above $100K to the April 7 low of $74.8K, investor demand for achieving a yield to mitigate against spot value losses looks set to increase.

Japanese firm Metaplanet has recently started to earn a yield on bitcoin by purchasing spot assets at the same time as put options, then selling premium on put options as price slumps.

Inflation in the U.S. actually declined at the headline level last month and the core rate barely rose, possibly reigniting debate about whether the Federal Reserve would resume trimming rates at its next meeting in May.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell 0.1% in March. Economists had expected a 0.1% increase, following February’s 0.2% gain. On a year-over-year basis, headline CPI increased just 2.4% compared to forecasts of 2.6% and February’s 2.8%.

Core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, climbed only 0.1% in March against forecasts 0.3% and February’s 0.2% reading. Core CPI rose 2.8% year-over-year, well shy of expectations for 3% and and February’s 3.1%.

The price of bitcoin (BTC) rose modestly to above $82,000 in the minutes following the news. After yesterday’s historic move higher, U.S. stock index futures are under pressure on Thursday morning, the Nasdaq 100 -2.7% and S&P 500 2.1%.

Thursday morning’s CPI report, of course, contains data from prior to President Trump’s «Liberation Day» sweeping tariff announcements last week that sent market into a multi-day panic, a portion of which was recovered yesterday following the president’s 90-day pause.

Prior to the tariff pause and market recovery, traders had been busily pricing in a rate cut to come at the Fed’s next meeting in May. Just prior to the CPI data, though, those odds had been whittled back to just 17%. For now, June is looking like the action meeting, with a 75% chance of 25 basis points or more of rate cuts by the end of that event.

Looking ahead, attention turns to Friday’s Producer Price Index (PPI) report, which may further shape expectations for Fed policy in May.