Coindesk

They call him “El Presidente.” But unlike the other President, Dave Portnoy draws a line at launching a memecoin. He worries his followers will lose their shirts.

“I got involved in memecoins because I wanted to launch a Barstool memecoin, but I didn’t want my fans and followers to lose money,” he said in an interview with CoinDesk. Memecoins are “legalized Ponzi schemes,” he said, “there’s no value to it, so you gotta get in and get out before it crashes.” [Note: memecoins aren’t legalized in the U.S. but they are popular.]

While Portnoy hasn’t launched a Barstool branded memecoin, he has launched other memecoins. In February he launched GREED, a token that reached a market cap of $41.5 million. According to Lookonchain, Portnoy bought 357.92M $GREED, totalling 35.79% of the total supply, then sold all in a single transaction causing the price to crash. He made around $258,000.

The Barstool Sports founder took to X in the aftermath to say, “I warned people I could sell. I could have cashed out +1 million. I let it drop 75% before cashing out. Lots of people made money. I took profits + poured it into #jailstool which I can’t touch. I didn’t make a dime on it. Some people won. Some lost. Only the losers keep bitching.”

Portnoy started trading stocks during the COVID-19 pandemic, and even launched the YouTube channel Davey Day Trader, where fans could follow his trades. His trades weren’t always successful, and there wasn’t always a clear strategy, but they were entertaining. At one point, he pulled letters out of a Scrabble bag, put RTX (Raytheon Technologies Corporation) together, and put $200,000 into the stock.

It was around this time that Portnoy was introduced to bitcoin. “I don’t think you can be involved in anything, stock market [or] finance without crypto being a major part of it,” he says now. He has a love/hate relationship with bitcoin because he says he’s “been on the wrong side of it every time it rips.” Over the years he’s also experimented with investing in cryptocurrencies like XRP.

Although Portnoy got into memecoins because he wanted to launch one for the Barstool community, he admits that he still doesn’t understand how to implement blockchain technology or cryptocurrencies into his business model. Barstool once accepted bitcoin as part of its Barstool Fund to help small businesses, but out of $50 million raised, he said only $30,000 came from bitcoin.

“They talked big, big talk, but it didn’t work out,” he said, reflecting on the bitcoin community who persuaded him to accept the cryptocurrency. “Crypto is the league leader in people telling you what [you] should be doing, and it’s also the league leader in people I don’t trust.”

Portnoy has experimented with memecoins, bitcoin, and even launched an NFT attached to his popular One Bite Pizza Reviews YouTube channel that sold for $138,000. And, although he doesn’t always understand them, he says “as much as I have back and forth with the crypto community, I actually love them. I think they’re hilarious […] an interesting group, which I guess I’m a part of.”

Dave Portnoy will be sharing more about his crypto journey at Consensus 2025 in Toronto on May 15. Get your tickets here.

Rice Robotics and dog-themed utility project Floki will soon launch the Minibot M1, a Floki-branded AI-powered companion robot that works on the RICE AI platform.

Floki will support the company in its blockchain push as it moves towards tokenizing its brand and AI data marketplace through TokenFi, a Floki sister project focused on tokenizing real-world assets, with support from the Floki community.

“The AI robotics market size is currently worth an estimated $22 billion and is projected to reach $100 billion by 2030, and we believe Rice Robotics is well-positioned for growth in this high-potential industry,” the Floki team told CoinDesk in a Telegram message.

RICE AI is a robotics brand with high-profile clients such as Nvidia, Softbank, Dubai Future Foundation, Mitsui Fudosan, NTT Japan, and 7-Eleven. It raised over $7 million in a pre-Series A funding round earlier this year from investors including Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, Soul Capital and Audacy Ventures.

RICE AI wants to make robots smarter by creating a system where robots worldwide can buy and share top-notch training data. These robots work independently without central control, making them more useful in the real world.

FLOKI prices are up 16% in the past 24 hours alongside a broader crypto market bump.

Galaxy Digital (GLXY) said it deepened its strategic partnership with CoreWeave (CRWV), reinforcing its ambitions in the fast-growing artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) data center industry.

Under a new agreement, CoreWeave will gain access to an additional 260 megawatts (MW) of critical IT load at Galaxy’s Helios data center campus in West Texas, bringing the total committed capacity for AI and HPC operations at the site to 393 MW.

The move marks another shift by Galaxy away from bitcoin mining, with the Helios campus acquired from Argo Blockchain in 2022 moving toward becoming a cornerstone for next-gen digital infrastructure. CEO Mike Novogratz emphasized the strategic value of diversifying the company’s business across blockchain, crypto and AI, highlighting the long-term potential to maximize shareholder value.

Galaxy shares rose as much as 8% in Toronto trading and are now up 60% from their April lows. CoreWeave rose as much as 13% as was recently trading 10% higher.

This announcement follows the March Phase I lease agreement that covered 133 MW over 15 years. The new Phase II commitment mirrors the terms of the initial deal and reflects both parties’ confidence in the site’s capacity and strategic location. With infrastructure upgrades already in motion, Phase I is expected to be service-ready by mid-2026, while Phase II will come online in 2027.

The site benefits from 800 MW of approved capacity and an additional 1.7 gigawatts currently undergoing evaluation — positioning Galaxy for further expansion.

CoreWeave retains exclusivity for even more capacity

Meanwhile, Galaxy is also exploring opportunities to monetize its legacy bitcoin mining infrastructure, signaling a decisive pivot in its operational focus.

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.

UPDATE (April 23, 14:49 UTC): Rewrites headline to add context.

Bitcoin (BTC) miner Riot Platforms (RIOT) has struck a $100 million credit agreement with Coinbase’s credit arm, using bitcoin as collateral to secure short-term funding for its ongoing expansion.

The publicly traded mining firm said in a press release it would draw on the facility over the next two months. The deal offers Riot, which currently holds 19,223 BTC worth over $1.8 billion, a line of credit that avoids issuing new shares.

“This credit facility is a key part of our efforts to diversify sources of financing to support our operations and strategic growth initiatives, with a view towards long-term stockholder value creation,” said CEO Jason Les in a statement.

The loan, issued by Coinbase Credit, comes with a variable interest rate: borrowers will pay at least 7.75% annually, calculated as the greater of 3.25% or the federal funds rate upper bound, plus 4.5%. The loan term is 364 days, though Riot may seek a one-year extension if Coinbase agrees to it.

The credit facility is secured by a portion of Riot’s total bitcoin reserves. The firm said it will use the funds “to pursue key strategic initiatives and for general corporate purposes.”

Coinbase has been making other similar deals. Just last week, healthcare technology firm Semler Scientific (SMLR) announced it reached an agreement with Coinbase to borrow cash via a loan secured by its bitcoin holdings.

Hut 8 (HUT), another bitcoin miner, has also leveraged a bitcoin-backed credit facility with Coinbase in the past.

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 2759.21, up 4.7% (+124.59) since 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

All 20 assets are trading higher.

Leaders: SUI (+18.5%) and AAVE (+9.4%).

Laggards: BCH (+0.8%) and LTC (+1.7%).

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

Fundraising for sophisticated crypto investment vehicles has yet to fully experience the anticipated positive headwind of the Donald Trump presidency, according to a new report by the Crypto Insight Group.

Momentum “remains positive but slower than [fund] managers anticipated under the new Trump administration,” the Hedge Fund Outlook 2Q25 report said.

“Net inflows continue, yet the pace lags early-year projections as allocators calibrate risk budgets,” it added.

The ostensibly pro-crypto position of the Trump administration brought about optimism across the digital asset industry of bullish momentum thanks to the increased regulatory clarity that was expected in the U.S.

Hopes of some sort of clear regulatory framework by June “may have been a bit optimistic,” Laura Vidiella del Blanco, head of investor relations for digital assets at VanEck, said in the report.

“While net new capital continues to flow into private funds, the first few months of 2025 brought a series of surprised that have clearly influenced allocators’ sense of urgency around deployment and the speed at which many fund managers expected things to happen,” she added.

Trump giveth and Trump taketh away?

Despite the optimism for what a pro-crypto administration in Washington, D.C. could bring, President Trump’s unveiling of his aggressive plans for tariffs on imports to the U.S. brought about volatility in financial markets from which crypto suffered as much as any other asset class.

Bitcoin fell to a six-month low of around $76,000 in the days after new tariffs initially went into effect early this month. For the crypto community, this may have been a indicator that Trump giveth and Trump taketh away.

“Trump’s tariffs have already unleashed mayhem in global market and destroyed trillions of dollars in value,” Chris Solarz, chief investment officer of Amitis Capital, said in the report.

“His inconsistent and unpredictable rhetoric has shaken investor confidence and raised fears of a full-blown return to 1930s-style protectionism.”

However, the overall sentiment toward the Trump administration from fund managers is “overwhelmingly constructive,” based on the report’s surveys.

Over half (52%) of respondents said they expect more positive surprises than expected from policy decisions in the next 12 months, compared to less than 10% saying they expected more negative surprises and about 40% saying decisions would align with their expectations.

Managers expect upside surprises such as clearer token classifications, stablecoin legislation and a credible route to spot market products, the report said.

“Trump’s recent geopolitical moves reinforce this view: by underscoring U.S. competitiveness in strategic tech, they are seen as catalysts that could accelerate institutional adoption rather than impede it.”

Respondents were fairly evenly split on whether Trump’s geopolitical moves would have an effect on institutional adoption of crypto. Around 36% said they would delay adoption, compared to about 34% believing they would accelerate adoption and 30% saying they would have no impact.

Scroll, the Ethereum layer-2 network, shared Wednesday that it has launched its Euclid upgrade, which the team called its most significant protocol transformation to date.

According to Scroll Labs, a key consequence of the upgrade is that it transitions Scroll from a “stage 0” to a “stage 1” rollup, meaning the network will retire some centrally-controlled safety features in an effort to become more decentralized.

“Euclid represents the biggest leap forward for Scroll since its inception,” the team wrote in a blog post shared with CoinDesk. “It’s a statement about Scroll’s future and its commitment to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the ZK Rollup arena.”

The Euclid upgrade includes a range of features designed to improve network performance, boost compatibility for certain applications, and reduce data storage costs. Additionally, the upgrade makes wallets more user-friendly through account abstraction, which allows developers to automate certain features through smart contracts.

Scroll is a zero-knowledge rollup — a blockchain scaling solution that uses zero-knowledge technology to process transactions cheaper and more efficiently than on the base network, Ethereum.

The new upgrade comes as Scroll has seen its user activity plummet to all-time lows. Currently, $62.6 million is locked with the protocol, down 94% from the network’s all-time high of over $900 million, according to data from DefiLlama.

Scroll’s TVL sank precipitously beginning on Oct. 18, 2024, which is when a snapshot was taken to determine eligibility for the SCROLL token airdrop.

Scroll’s claim that with the Eulicid upgrade it has transitioned to a “stage 1” rollup follows from a 2022 blog post by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who proposed categorizing rollups according to their degree of decentralization. Buterin introduced his framework in the early days of rollups, when virtually every “layer-2” network employed so-called training wheels — features that sacrificed decentralization for efficiency, security, and other benefits.

Without clear standards for communicating the stage of a rollup, Buterin was concerned that they risked misleading users as to their security level, and he stated on X that he would only publicly mention layer-2 networks that had reached stage 1 or beyond. 

At that time, only Arbitrum and Optimism were at that stage. Since then, Unichain, Ink, and Kinto have joined them, according to L2Beat.

The Euclid upgrade helps decentralize Scroll’s sequencer, the system that processes and orders transactions before they are sent to Ethereum. According to Scroll’s blog post, the new features ensure the Scroll team cannot unilaterally block or censor transactions, which was theoretically possible under the older configuration.

Scroll claims it is the first zero-knowledge rollup to reach stage 1 phase.

Read more: Scroll’s SCR Token Debuts at $212M Market Cap in Volatile Trading Session

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

For bitcoin bulls, it’s a case of “heads I win, tails you lose.”

It’s risk-on-time and boding well for BTC, which rose above $94,000 to mark a more than 50% retracement of the sell-off from record highs above $109,000 to $74,000.

The cryptocurrency has experienced a sharp rally in the past 24 hours, coinciding with President Donald Trump saying he does not intend to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell and making conciliatory remarks on trade tensions with China.

But BTC rose on Monday too. That was supposedly on haven demand as traders sold the dollar, U.S. stocks and bonds on the perceived threat to the Fed’s independence.

No wonder some analysts say the largest cryptocurrency is simultaneously a risk play due to its emerging tech appeal and a haven akin to digital gold.

The latest surge also boosted morale in the wider crypto market. SUI, BONK, ENA, NEAR and AGLO have climbed more than 20% in just 24 hours. IMX surged over 40%, while ether (ETH), the biggest altcoin, is trading about 10% higher. Bitcoin’s dominance rate dropped slightly, indicating a traders’ renewed willingness to take on risk.

In traditional markets, traders are covering their USD short positions, with some taking outright bullish bets on the dollar. This shift comes amid a decline in gold prices and a positive upswing on Wall Street.

Supporting the case for a continued move higher in BTC is the renewed optimism about institutional adoption. The FT reported that Brandon Lutnick, son of U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, is working with SoftBank, Tether and Bitfinex to capitalize on the crypto revival under the Trump administration.

“The $3 billion fund plans to raise an additional $350 million via convertible bonds, alongside a $200 million private equity round, with one clear directive: buy more Bitcoin, and buy it big,” according to Singapore-based QCP Capital.

The announcement comes on the heels of decisive shift in the U.S. regulatory policy. On Tuesday, the newly appointed SEC Chairman Paul Atkins reiterated that his top priority is establishing a clear regulatory framework for digital assets.

Elsewhere, DeFi Development Corp. deepened its SOL bet with a $11.5 million token purchase. A crypto whale accumulated ether, withdrawing $21.78 million worth of tokens from Binance. Stay alert!

What to Watch

• Crypto:
  • April 25, 1 p.m.: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Crypto Task Force Roundtable on “Key Considerations for Crypto Custody“.
  • April 28: Enjin Relaychain increases active validator slots to 25 from 15 to enhance decentralization.
  • 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
  • Day 3 of 6: World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring meetings in Washington.
  • 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 Est. 49.4 vs. Prev. 50.2
    • Services PMI Est. 52.8 vs. Prev. 54.4
  • April 24, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Census Bureau releases March manufactured durable goods orders data.
    • Durable Goods Orders MoM Est. 2% vs. Prev. 0.9%
    • Durable Goods Orders Ex Defense MoM Est. 0.2% vs. Prev. 0.8%
    • Durable Goods Orders Ex Transp MoM Est. 0.2% vs. Prev. 0.7%
  • April 24, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Department of Labor releases unemployment insurance data for the week ended April 19.
    • Initial Jobless Claims Est. 221K vs. Prev. 215K
• Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
  • April 29: PayPal Holdings (PYPL), pre-market
  • April 30: Robinhood Markets (HOOD), post-market
  • May 1: Block (XYZ), post-market
  • May 1: Reddit (RDDT), post-market
  • May 1: Riot Platforms (RIOT), post-market

Token Events

• Governance votes & calls
  • Lido DAO is voting to extend the Delegate Incentivization Program (DIP) through Q4 with a $225,000 LDO budget. Voting ends on April 28.
  • Uniswap DAO will vote on establishing a licensing and deployment framework for Uniswap v4 to accelerate its adoption across multiple chains. The proposal grants the Uniswap Foundation a blanket exemption to deploy v4 on any DAO-approved chain and gives the Uniswap Accountability Committee authority to update deployment records. Voting April 24-30.
  • April 23, 12 p.m.: IOTA to host an X Spaces session titled IOTA Rebased Townhall.
  • 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 24, 8 a.m.: Ronin to host a townhall meeting.
  • April 30, 12 p.m.: Helium to host a community call meeting.
• Unlocks
  • April 30: Optimism (OP) to unlock 1.89% of its circulating supply worth $23.82 million.
  • May 1: Sui (SUI) to unlock 2.28% of its circulating supply worth $216.81 million.
  • May 1: ZetaChain (ZETA) to unlock 5.67% of its circulating supply worth $11.54 million.
  • May 2: Ethena (ENA) to unlock 0.73% of its circulating supply worth $13.97 million.
  • May 7: Kaspa (KAS) to unlock 0.56% of its circulating supply worth $13.82 million.
  • May 9: Movement (MOVA) to unlock 2.04% of its circulating supply worth $12.28 million.
• Token Launches
  • April 23: Zora to airdrop its ZORA tokens.
  • April 24: Initia (INIT) to be listed on Binance, CoinW, WEEX, KuCoin, MEXC, and others.

Conferences:

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

• Day 2 of 3: Money20/20 Asia (Bangkok)
• April 23: Crypto Horizons 2025 (Dubai)
• Day 1 of 2: Blockchain Forum 2025 (Moscow)
• Day 1 of 3: Semafor’s World Economy Summit 2025 (Washington)
• 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)
• April 30-May 1: TOKEN2049 (Dubai)

Token Talk

By Shaurya Malwa

• Major memecoin project Shib tokenized a shiba inu image on the trending Base ecosystem platform Zora.
• “MAKE SHIB MEME AGAIN,” Shib said in a post on X in a nod to the “Make America Great Again” slogan, aiming to revive the meme culture that propelled the token’s popularity in 2020.
• Shib said the Zora token it minted was not tied to the SHIB token’s value but focused on archiving the meme’s culture.
• “This post is live on Zora — not for speculation, not a token tied to SHIB — but to preserve this content on-chain. We’re archiving our culture. One meme at a time,” the team said.

• Zora has gained traction in the past week following heavy social media promotion by Base creator Jesse Pollak, who spearheaded a campaign to “tokenize everything,” or just about any piece on content, on the Coinbase Ventures-backed layer 2.
• Pollak’s amplifications of several Zora-created tokens drew attention to the platform, with user count and token creation setting records late last week. It attracted over 230,000 “new” traders (or wallets that interacted with the platform for the first time) on Sunday, data shows.

Derivatives Positioning

• Open interest in BTC and ETH perpetual futures listed on offshore exchanges has risen more than price, signaling an influx of money into the market, which validates price gains.
• SUI, TRX, HBAR and BCH still see negative funding rates, signaling a bias for shorts. Continued market strength may force these short position holders to square off their bets, potentially leading to a sharp price rally in the tokens.
• Gains in XLM, DOGE, TON and TRX may be fleeting: The negative cumulative volume delta for these coins points to net selling in the market.
• On Deribit, traders chased BTC calls at strikes $95,000 and $100,000. Options skews for BTC and ETH flipped bullish in favor of calls.

Market Movements:

• BTC is up 3.11% from 4 p.m. ET Tuesday at $94,258.40 (24hrs: +6.41%)
• ETH is up 5.75% at $1,795.84 (24hrs: +10.49%)
• CoinDesk 20 is up 5.05% at 2,767.83 (24hrs: +8.68%)
• Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 4 bps at 3.02%
• BTC funding rate is at -0.0001% (-0.0624% annualized) on Binance

• DXY is unchanged at 98.88
• Gold is down 1.43% at $3,352.00/oz
• Silver is up 0.36% at $33/oz
• Nikkei 225 closed +1.89% at 34,868.63
• Hang Seng closed +2.37% at 22,072.62
• FTSE is up 1.59% at 8,460.68
• Euro Stoxx 50 is up 2.71% at 5,096.05
• DJIA closed on Tuesday +2.66% at 39,186.98
• S&P 500 closed +2.51% at 5,287.76
• Nasdaq closed +2.71% at 16,300.42
• S&P/TSX Composite Index closed +1.24% at 24,306.00
• S&P 40 Latin America closed +2.52% at 2,444.63
• U.S. 10-year Treasury rate is down 5 bps at 4.35%
• E-mini S&P 500 futures are up 2.14% at 5,428.50
• E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 2.46% at 18,838.00
• E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are up 1.71% at 40,031.00

Bitcoin Stats:

• BTC Dominance: 64.34 (-0.36%)
• Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.01908 (1.44%)
• Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 852 EH/s
• Hashprice (spot): $46.4 PH/s
• Total Fees: 6.27 BTC / $563,297
• CME Futures Open Interest: 141,010 BTC
• BTC priced in gold: 27.7 oz
• BTC vs gold market cap: 7.87%

Technical Analysis

• As the bitcoin price rally picks up pace, the market could soon see alternative cryptocurrencies like bitcoin cash (BCH) put in bigger gains.
• The BCH-BTC ratio may break above the bear market trendline to suggest a reversal higher.
• Such a breakout may bring in even more buyers, yielding a stronger rally.

Crypto Equities

• Strategy (MSTR): closed on Tuesday at $343.03 (+7.95%), up 3.34% at $354.50 in pre-market
• Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $190 (+8.57%), up 4.18% at $197.95
• Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$18.21 (+18.4%)
• MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $14.06 (+14.4%), up 3.77% at $14.59
• Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $7.12 (+13.2%), up 3.51% at $7.37
• Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $6.92 (+8.29%), up 4.19% at $7.21
• CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $8.77 (+17.4%), up 3.19% at $9.04
• CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $13.10 (+11.58%), up 5.5% at $13.82
• Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $33.28 (+11.57%), up 7.27% at $35.70
• Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $39.19 (+7.11%), up 2.3% at $40.09

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs:

• Daily net flow: $912.7 million
• Cumulative net flows: $36.77 billion
• Total BTC holdings ~ 1.12 million

Spot ETH ETFs

• Daily net flow: $38.8 million
• Cumulative net flows: $2.28 billion
• Total ETH holdings ~ 3.31 million

Source: Farside Investors

Overnight Flows

Chart of the Day

• The chart compares the fully diluted valuations (FDV) of various tokens between May 2024 and April 2025.
• The average drawdown has been 50% over a one-year period, implying losses for those holding locked tokens.
• “Meaning on average, holders had the opportunity to exit locked positions at 2x current spot prices last year,” Taran Sabharwal, founder of OTC liquidity platform STIX, said on X.

While You Were Sleeping

• China, BRICS Will ‘Defend’ Global Order as Trump Withdraws, Brazil Says (Financial Times): Brazil’s chief foreign policy adviser said Trump’s retreat from multilateralism is strengthening BRICS, noting that “a world order without Washington is impossible.”
• Bitcoin Becomes Fifth-Largest Global Asset, Surpasses Google’s Market Cap (CoinDesk): Bitcoin rose past $94,000, broke through key technical levels and outperformed the Nasdaq 100 amid easing U.S.-China trade tensions and renewed strength in tech stocks.
• Cantor Nears $3B Crypto Venture With SoftBank and Tether (FT): Cantor Equity Partners, which raised $200 million in January, will help launch 21 Capital, a new firm seeded with $3 billion in BTC from Softbank, Tether and Bitfinex.
• BOJ to Raise Rates in Q3 Though Trump Tariffs Will Disrupt Policy Normalization (Reuters): 84% of economists surveyed see no BOJ rate hike before July, while expectations for a third-quarter increase fell sharply due to tariff-driven uncertainty and worsening earnings forecasts.
• Bitcoin Futures Open Interest Surge Shows Investor Confidence on Trade Deals, Powell (CoinDesk): The cumulative notional open interest, or the dollar value of the number of active bets in BTC perpetual futures, rose by 10% to $17.83 billion.
• China Has an Army of Robots on Its Side in the Tariff War (The New York Times): China’s lead in factory robotics is helping keep export prices low, giving it an edge in trade conflicts, though concerns over job losses and social impacts remain.

In the Ether

As bitcoin (BTC) and ether’s (ETH) recovery rally gathered momentum Tuesday, the perpetual futures market saw an even more pronounced increase in open interest, pointing to growing investor confidence as the Trump administration dialed back on its trade-tariff, anti-Fed rhetoric.

BTC, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, rose 6.79% nearly topping $94,000 for the first time since March, CoinDesk data show. That’s the most significant single-day percentage gain since April 9. The Ethereum blockchain’s ether token jumped 11% to $1,1175, it’s best performance since April 2.

The rally came as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discussed de-escalation in U.S.-China trade tensions, followed by President Donald Trump saying tariffs on Chinese goods will drop substantially from the present 245%. Trump further said he does not intend to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

The price surge was characterized by traders deploying money for perpetual futures trading on major offshore exchanges as evidenced by bigger increases in open interest at Binance, Bybit, OKX and Deribit and leading on-chain perpetual-focused decentralized exchange Hyperliquid.

The cumulative notional open interest, or the dollar value of the number of active bets in BTC perpetual futures, rose by 10% to $17.83 billion, according to data source Velo. That’s the biggest single-day increase since March 2, when Trump mentioned XRP, ADA and SOL as potential candidates for a strategic digital assets reserve that would hold bitcoin and ether as the core. The administration later said it would keep bitcoin seized in enforcement actions as a reserve.

“Bitcoin’s Open Interest surged faster than its Price, with most positions originating from Binance,” Joao Wedson, CEO of Alphractal Research, said on X. “The issue is that a large portion consists of Longs, so increased volatility is expected in the coming hours.”

The price surge was likely aided by short squeeze, or unwinding of short perpetual futures bets. Funding rates were negative roughly 24 hours ago, implying a bias for shorts.

Ether’s notional open interest jumped nearly 16% to $6.60 billion, the largest single-day increase since Nov. 27.

An increase in open interest alongside a price rise is said to confirm the bullish momentum. In other words, BTC and ETH could continue to rise.

Funding Rates Bullish

The bias for bullish long positions is also evident from the moderately positive annualized perpetual funding rates, ranging between annualized 5% to 10% for BTC and ETH.

Funding rates, charged every eight hours, are payments exchanged between traders holding long and short positions in perpetual futures. They are designed to ensure the contract price stays close to the underlying asset’s spot price.

A positive funding rate implies that traders are more inclined and willing to pay fees to hold long positions. As such, it’s considered a sign of bullish sentiment. However, excessively high funding rates can indicate overcrowding or bullish speculative fervor, but that’s not the case right now.

Bitcoin (BTC) has become the fifth-largest asset by market capitalization, reaching $1.86 trillion and surpassing Google (GOOG) as it breaks through $94,000.

This marks the highest position bitcoin has ever attained in the rankings, even though its market cap previously exceeded $2 trillion when its price was over $109,000. At that time, however, tech stocks were significantly more elevated than they are at the moment.

Bitcoin has just broken above $94,000, turning positive for the year. Renewed optimism is emerging amid easing tensions in the U.S.–China tariff trade war, which has fueled gains for both bitcoin and tech stocks, with Nasdaq futures rising 2%.

Technically, bitcoin has now moved above key resistance levels that were noted on Tuesday. Additionally, it has set a new record relative to the Nasdaq, indicating a breakout not only against major tech indices but also across a range of key asset classes.