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Crypto Daybook Americas: Bitcoin Breakout Lifts AI, Memecoins, Underscores Hedge Value
By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)
Bitcoin’s censorship-resistant, decentralized setup empowers individuals by facilitating peer-to-peer transactions without government interference or corporate control.
You’ve probably heard that from a Bitcoin maxi many times.
It’s an idea that resonates even more strongly today in light of reports that President Donald Trump is exploring ways to remove Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, which is the world’s most powerful central bank.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett talked about Trump’s intentions Friday and markets responded early Monday by selling the dollar and the U.S. stock futures. The Dollar Index, which tracks the currency’s exchange rate against major fiat currencies, slipped to a three-year low of 98.00 while gold touched new highs above $3,400 per ounce.
Bitcoin rose past $87,000, confirming a bullish breakout from its recent sideways trading between $83,000 and $86,000 to suggest more gains ahead. The uptick saw gaming, AI and memecoins outshine other sectors of the crypto market, with smaller tokens like ENJ and MAGIC chalking out gains in excess of 50% in 24 hours. MANTRA still tanked 15%.
«A weaker dollar could draw renewed attention from American investors, highlighting bitcoin’s potential as a hedge against declining dollar value,» said Matrixport, a crypto financial services platform.
On-chain data warned of heightened volatility as prices potentially near the $90,000 mark. «Cost‑basis clusters show little overhead supply below that range, implying the market could advance quickly before a larger tranche of holders reaches break‑even and begins taking profit,» analytics firm IntoTheBlock said in a Telegram post.
In other news, Charles Shwab CEO Rick Wurster said the financial services firm is “hopeful and likely to be able” to support spot crypto trading within the next year. Wurster said that more and more clients are seeking information about crypto.
Slovenia’s Finance Ministry proposed a 25% tax on capital gains on profits from selling cryptocurrencies for fiat or spending tokens for goods and services. The tax is proposed to go into effect from 2026.
Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain, proposed replacing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with RISC-V, an open-source instruction set architecture used to develop custom processors for a variety of applications. Buterin said the proposal address one of Ethereum’s key scaling bottlenecks by dramatically improving the efficiency and simplicity of smart contract execution.
Speaking of Ethereum, it briefly fell behind its chief rival, Solana network in terms of the total staked value of their respective native tokens, ETH and SOL. Uniswap founder Hayden Adam warned that Ethereum could fall behind Solana if it goes back to relying on the layer 1 bockchain instead of the layer-2 scaling products.
In macro news, China said it will retaliate against countries that work with U.S. to isolate Beijing in the trade war started by Trump. Stay alert!
What to Watch
- Crypto:
- 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«.
- April 29, 1:05 a.m.: BNB Chain (BNB) — BSC mainnet hardfork.
- April 30, 9:30 a.m.: ProShares expects its XRP ETF, offering exposure through futures and swap agreements, to begin trading on NYSE Arca.
- April 30, 10:03 a.m.: Gnosis Chain (GNO), an Ethereum sister chain, will activate the Pectra hard fork on its mainnet at slot 21,405,696, epoch 1,337,856.
- Macro
- April 21-26: World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring meetings take place in Washington.
- April 22, 8:30 p.m.: Statistics Canada releases March 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.»
- April 23, 8 a.m.: Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography releases retail sales data.
- Retail Sales MoM Prev. 0.6%
- Retail Sales YoY Prev. 2.7%
- April 23, 9:45 a.m.: S&P Global releases (flash) U.S. April purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data.
- Composite PMI Prev. 53.5
- Manufacturing PMI Prev. 50.2
- Services PMI Est. 52.9 vs. Prev. 54.4
- Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
Token Events
- Governance votes & calls
- Aave DAO is discussing working with Ether.fi to create a custom Aave market on EVM layer 2 to “facilitate on-chain credit for everyday payments through the Ether.fi Cash credit card program.”
- April 23, 9 p.m.: Manta Network to host a townhall meeting with its founders.
- April 24, 8 a.m.: Alchemy Pay to host an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on its 2025 roadmap.
- April 30, 12 p.m.: Helium to host a community call meeting.
- Unlocks
- April 22: Metars Genesis (MRS) to unlock 11.87% of its circulating supply worth $127.9 million.
- April 30: Optimism (OP) to unlock 1.89% of its circulating supply worth $22.78 million.
- May 1: Sui (SUI) to unlock 2.28% of its circulating supply worth $167.97 million.
- May 1: ZetaChain (ZETA) to unlock 5.67% of its circulating supply worth $10.57 million.
- May 2: Ethena (ENA) to unlock 0.73% of its circulating supply worth $12.12 million.
- Token Launches
- April 21: Balance (EPT) to be listed on Bitget Bybit, KuCoin, Gate.io, LBank, MEXC, BingX.
- 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)
- April 29: IFGS 2025 (London)
Token Talk
By Shaurya Malwa
- Bitget, a centralized crypto exchange, will reverse trades and compensate users due to «abnormal trading» in its perpetual futures market for VOXEL, a token linked to the Polygon-based RPG game Voxie Tactics.
- Early Sunday, VOXEL’s trading volume surged past bitcoin’s 24-hour volume — with the token’s value surging over 300% in a week — despite being only the 723rd-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
- An X user claimed six-figure profits from a sub-$100 investment, attributing the surge to a potential bug in Bitget’s market-making robot,. The trade rollback will likely erase these gains.
- Bitget’s investigation revealed possible market manipulation by certain accounts, prompting the exchange to activate its risk-control system and plan a trade rollback within 24 hours.
- Affected users who incurred losses will receive compensation, and Bitget is continuing its investigation.
Derivatives Positioning
- The market-wide futures open interest has climbed to $37.22 billion, the highest since March 24, according to Velo Data. The figure represents open interest in all coins listed on Binance, Bybit, OKX, Deribit and Hyperliquid.
- ETH is the best performing major token in terms of futures open interest growth, followed by BTC and LINK.
- Speaking of OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta, ETH also leads the pack with the highest positive reading, implying an influx of buying pressure in the market.
- On Deribit, BTC and ETH risk reversals for short- and near-dated expiries have flattened out, recovering from the recent persistent negative prints that represented bias for protective put options.
Market Movements:
- BTC is up 3.19% from 4 p.m. ET Sunday at $87,270.44 (24hrs: +3.63%)
- ETH is up 2.54% at $1,631.90 (24hrs: +3.17%)
- CoinDesk 20 is up 0.8% at 2,268.01 (24hrs: +3.77%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 47 bps at 2.47%
- BTC funding rate is at 0.0044% (4.776% annualized) on Binance
- DXY is down 1.11% at 98.26
- Gold is up 2.04% at $3,395.65/oz
- Silver is up 1.12% at $32.89/oz
- Nikkei 225 closed -1.3% at 34,279.92
- Hang Seng closed +1.61% at 21,395.14
- FTSE is closed at 8,275.66
- Euro Stoxx 50 is closed at 4,935.34
- DJIA closed on Thursday -1.33% at 39,142.23
- S&P 500 closed +0.13% at 5,282.70
- Nasdaq closed -0.13% at 16,286.45
- S&P/TSX Composite Index closed +0.36% at 24,192.81
- S&P 40 Latin America closed +1.64% at 2,383.75
- U.S. 10-year Treasury rate is unchanged at 4.33%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 1.04% at 5,275.00
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 1.16% at 18,168.25
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are down 0.92% at 38,969
Bitcoin Stats:
- BTC Dominance: 64% (0.23%)
- Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.1873 (0.54%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 858 EH/s
- Hashprice (spot): $45.22
- Total Fees: 5.48 BTC / $479,045
- CME Futures Open Interest: 141,280 BTC
- BTC priced in gold: 25.7 oz
- BTC vs gold market cap: 7.2%
Technical Analysis
- Bitcoin’s breakout has set the stage for a continued move higher to $90,000.
- However, trading volume has dipped, suggesting low participation in the price recovery.
- A low-volume rally often ends up being short-lived.
Crypto Equities
- Strategy (MSTR): closed on Thursday at $317.20 (1.78%), up 3.13% at $327.12 in pre-market
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $175.03 (1.64%) up 1.4% at $177.49
- Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$15.36 (-1.41%)
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $12.66 (2.76%), up 2.69% at $13.00
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $6.46 (1.57%), up 2.63% at $6.63
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $6.63 (0.61%), down 0.45% at $6.60
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $7.51 (3.16%), up 1.86% at $7.65
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $12.04 (1.09%), up 2.41% at $12.33
- Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $32.49 (4.79%)
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $36.58 (-1.64%), up 2.1% at $37.35
ETF Flows
U.S. equity markets were closed on Friday.
Overnight Flows
Chart of the Day
- XRP’s short- and near-dated risk reversals continue to be priced negative, a sign of persistent demand for put options, which offer downside protection.
While You Were Sleeping
- Pope Francis, Voice for the Poor Who Transformed the Catholic Church, Dies at 88 (CNN): The first Latin American pope died weeks after returning to public life following a life-threatening case of pneumonia.
- China Vows Retaliation Against Countries That Follow U.S. Calls to Isolate Beijing (CNBC): China said it will respond to U.S. tariff deals that undermine its interests, accusing Washington of «unilateral bullying» and warning it risks returning global trade to «law of the jungle.»
- BNB, SOL, XRP Spike Higher as Bitcoin ‘Digital Gold’ Narrative Makes a Comeback (CoinDesk): Bitcoin’s correlation with U.S. equities appears to be weakening as its price increasingly tracks gold, which has held firm while stocks decline, according to LVRG Research’s Nick Ruck.
- Stablecoin Giant Circle Is Launching a New Payments and Remittance Network (CoinDesk): The fintech firm will unveil a new payments and cross-border remittance product on Tuesday.
- Over $380M Worth of Crypto Stolen During Bybit’s $1.4B Hack Has Gone Dark (CoinDesk): The exchange’s CEO said that 27.6% of the funds stolen by the North Korean Lazarus Group «flowed into mixers then through bridges to P2P and OTC platforms.»
- Bitcoin’s Breakout Signals BTC Potentially Rallying to $90K-$92K: Technical Analysis (CoinDesk): Bitcoin’s price surged past $87,000, breaking out of a week-long consolidation between $83,000 and $86,000. The target range previously served as a strong support zone.
In the Ether
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has long been the world’s most influential financial regulator, helping to ensure our capital markets are the deepest, fairest, and most accessible in the world. But its continued relevance will depend on whether it can do more than merely respond to innovation — it must proactively foster it.
For nearly a century, the SEC has adapted to evolving markets, new technologies and greater retail participation. In its best moments, the agency has embraced innovation in service of transparency, investor protection, and capital formation. But in recent years, it has strayed from that legacy — nowhere more visibly than in its approach to crypto and blockchain.
The good news is, with a change in leadership and a more open posture emerging, the SEC has a chance to course-correct. But the bigger question is: how do we make that change permanent? How do we build innovation into the SEC’s DNA so that the next promising financial technology isn’t strangled in its crib?
I spent nearly six years at the SEC, first as a Senior Counsel in the Division of Enforcement and then as Chief Counsel in the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs. I’ve since held senior legal and policy roles in crypto firms across the ecosystem. From both perspectives, one thing is clear: the SEC can fulfill its mission more effectively — and maintain its global leadership — only if it becomes a proactive partner in financial innovation.
The SEC at Its Best
The SEC has a proud history of embracing change to the benefit of investors and markets alike. In the 1990s, it digitized corporate filings through EDGAR, replacing paper documents with searchable databases. It later approved Regulation ATS, enabling the rise of alternative trading systems that increased competition and liquidity. ETFs, which were once novel, are now mainstream products that offer low-cost, diversified exposure to a wide range of assets. More recently, fractional-share trading has empowered millions of retail investors to own a slice of companies they once could only admire from afar.
One especially relevant example as the SEC thinks about how to regulate crypto is the agency’s treatment of asset-backed securities. In the 1980s and 1990s, the SEC recognized that these complex financial products didn’t fit neatly into existing disclosure regimes. After years of study and no-action letters, it developed a tailored disclosure framework in 2004 — refined further in 2014 — that balanced innovation with investor protection. And it didn’t need to bring hundreds of enforcement actions to do it.
When the SEC Fell Behind
There are also times the SEC failed to adapt, to the detriment of both investors and markets. It was slow to respond to the rise of high-frequency trading, contributing to the 2010 Flash Crash. It took years to implement the crowdfunding rules authorized by the JOBS Act. It lagged on digital reporting standards, delaying broader access to market data.
And, for much of the last few years, its stance on crypto veered from caution to outright hostility. Instead of issuing clear rules for digital assets, the agency pursued a scattershot enforcement campaign — often against firms that were seeking to comply in good faith. Many of these actions didn’t even involve fraud or investor loss. Meanwhile, American crypto companies fled overseas, and a global industry flourished without us.
Even the SEC’s grudging approval of spot bitcoin ETFs in 2024 came only after it was forced by a federal court. And while the agency at one point talked about creating a crypto disclosure framework akin to what it did for ABS, it never followed through.
Innovation Isn’t the Enemy
Crypto may be new, but the SEC has faced this challenge before. It knows how to modernize its rules to meet new realities. What’s different now is the opportunity to leverage innovation — not just regulate it.
Take blockchain technology. It could enable near-instant trade settlement, reducing risk and freeing up capital. It could improve market transparency through immutable records and real-time transaction data. It could lower operational costs by reducing intermediaries. And tokenization could expand access to private markets and hard-to-reach asset classes, benefiting both issuers and investors.
Ironically, the SEC hasn’t seriously explored how blockchain could improve its own market oversight. That’s a missed opportunity. But it’s not too late.
A Blueprint for the Future
So what would it look like to build innovation into the SEC’s core mission?
- Revise the SEC’s Mandate: Congress should amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to explicitly include the promotion of innovation and modernization, alongside investor protection, market integrity, and capital formation.
- Rethink Metrics of Success: The SEC shouldn’t measure success solely by the number of enforcement actions or penalties collected. It should also look to capital formation, investor confidence, and the safe adoption of new technologies.
- Create an Innovation Office: A dedicated, empowered team should engage with entrepreneurs, technologists, and academics to guide responsible innovation — just as similar offices in the U.K. and Singapore have done.
- Adopt Risk-Based Regulation: Not every new product or platform needs full regulatory treatment on day one. Pilot programs, safe harbors, and regulatory sandboxes can help innovators test ideas while maintaining appropriate guardrails.
- Invest in Education and Training: SEC staff need better fluency in emerging technologies. Cross-disciplinary expertise should be rewarded and cultivated.
These are not radical ideas — they are proven tools drawn from the SEC’s own playbook.
In a global race to define the future of finance, the SEC has a choice: lead or fall behind. Its greatest strength has always been its credibility and ability to adapt.
The next generation of investors and entrepreneurs won’t wait around for 20th-century rules to catch up to 21st-century innovation. Nor should they have to. If the SEC wants to remain the gold standard, it must adapt once again — not just to the present, but to what comes next.
We are never shy about holding ETH to account as crypto’s second largest asset and the DeFi intuition gateway for traditional investors. But mainstream adoption requires a growth story, and so far this year ETH is (put kindly) failing to lead.
ETH sits in 16th place in the CoinDesk 20 YTD performance leaderboard, down 53%. Going back a year, the numbers look similar: 15th place and down 50%. Its market cap has dwindled so much relative to XRP that both are expected to be capped in the upcoming CoinDesk 20 reconstitution, a first.
ETH’s woes are news to few in the industry, but for us as index and product builders for «5%-ers,» it begs the question: is ETH still special? A distinguished provenance can only take you so far. ETH continues to dominate its on-chain categories (even before adding in L2s) and is arguably the second best brand name in crypto. There are even thoughtful ideas about ETH’s end-state as an essential supporting component of our blockchain future; we hear expressions like, «Ethereum will be the clearinghouse of DeFi.»
But mainstream adoption requires a growth story.
We have observed over the last few weeks that bitcoin has shown impressive resilience to fragile global markets. This past week was no exception, and as we pointed out last week, expectations for higher inflation – now echoed by Fed Chair Powell – could help support movement into bitcoin.
But the crypto market’s dependency on bitcoin to lead prices higher is one we hope the digital asset class outgrows. ETH can reassert a leadership position, as it briefly did in the weeks following the U.S. election. If not, CoinDesk 20 investors have exposure to much of ETH’s competition.
Crypto trading firm GSR led a $100 million private placement into Upexi (UPXI), a consumer-goods company pivoting to a digital asset-based treasury strategy.
The company, whose products include medicinal mushroom gummies and pet-grooming tools, said it will use the capital to accumulate and stake solana (SOL) tokens. The Tampa, Florida-based company had a market cap of $3 million on Friday.
The investment, structured as a private investment in public equity (PIPE), comes as Upexi shifts from physical product manufacturing to managing part of its balance sheet using Solana, a high-speed blockchain known for low fees and fast settlement, according to a press release.
The investment announcement sent Upexi’s stock soaring more than 700%, from around $2.30 to $19 at the time of writing.
GSR’s involvement points to a growing overlap between public markets and blockchain finance.
“This investment highlights the growing demand for efficient, secure access to high-quality crypto assets in public markets” Brian Rudick, GSR’s head of research, said in a statement.
Solana Foundation president Lily Liu said the deal marked another step in connecting traditional financial firms with decentralized infrastructure.
The move “underscores GSR’s confidence in Solana as a leading high-performance blockchain,” the finance company said in a release.
5 Ways the SEC Can Embrace Innovation
Is ETH Still Special?
GSR Anchors $100M Investment in Upexi to Purchase SOL, Stock Rockets 700%
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