Coindesk

Aave users can start supplying and borrowing Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin on the decentralized lending platform’s V3 Ethereum Core market, Aave said in a Monday post on X.

The peer-to-peer loans market has a supply cap of 50 million RLUSD and a borrow cap of 5 million RLUSD.

RLUSD is a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar offered on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum blockchain. It is fully backed by U.S. dollar deposits, short-term U.S. Treasuries, and cash equivalents with each token matched by equivalent fiat value.

Security features make RLUSD appealing to institutional users. An XRP Ledger amendment in January saw a “clawback” feature go live on the network, allowing the issuer to reclaim certain tokens, such as RLUSD, from users’ wallets under specific conditions.

Industry leaders say RLUSD may shift crypto market dynamics, with incumbents such as Tether’s USDT, the largest stablecoin, and Circle’s USDC, the No. 2, seeing competition from Ripple’s product. It is also seen boosting closely related XRP’s appeal among investors.

By James Van Straten (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Few quotes better capture the current turbulence in global markets. For decades, the classic portfolio of 60% equities and 40% bonds was considered the cornerstone of balanced investing. This allocation typically offered protection in downturns through bonds, while equities drove returns in times of economic growth.

We saw this play out during crises like 2008 and 2020, when iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) surged amid global uncertainty. Today, that dynamic has been upended. With persistent geopolitical tension ignited by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, stubborn inflation and slowing growth, Treasury yields have climbed and bond prices fallen. TLT is now down some 50% from its 2020 highs.

The equity side of the portfolio isn’t faring much better. U.S. stocks are underperforming, caught in what some are calling a broader “Sell America” trade. Even the dollar, which typically strengthens in risk-off environments, is weakening as capital flows shift toward the yen and euro.

In this new regime, alternative assets are taking center stage. Gold has surged to $3,500 an ounce for the first time, cementing its role as a haven. To underscore its meteoric rise: the precious metal has added about $6 trillion in market cap this year, triple the market cap of bitcoin (BTC) at its all-time high. Gold ETF inflows, measured over a 90-day rolling period, are approaching 9 million ounces, the biggest surge since 2022 and among the largest in the past decade.

Bitcoin, while lagging behind gold, is also reasserting itself. It has reached new highs in dominance within the crypto market and is beginning to diverge from U.S. tech stocks. It’s increasingly behaving like an uncorrelated asset, valuable in a diversified portfolio. This Friday, $6.7 billion in bitcoin options are set to expire, including $330 million in call options at the $100,000 strike price, setting the stage for a potentially volatile final week of April. Stay alert!

What to Watch

• Crypto:
  • April 22: The Lyora upgrade goes live on the Injective (INJ) mainnet.
  • 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 2 of 6: World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring meetings in Washington.
  • April 22, 8:30 p.m.: Statistics Canada releases March producer price inflation data.
    • PPI MoM Est. 0.3% vs. 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 Est. 49.4 vs. Prev. 50.2
    • Services PMI Est. 52.8 vs. Prev. 54.4
• Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
  • April 22: Tesla (TSLA), post-market
  • April 30: Robinhood Markets (HOOD), post-market
  • May 1: Block (XYZ), post-market

Token Events

• Governance votes & calls
  • Aave DAO is discussing partnering 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 30: Optimism (OP) to unlock 1.89% of its circulating supply worth $21.83 million.
  • May 1: Sui (SUI) to unlock 2.28% of its circulating supply worth $170.93 million.
  • May 1: ZetaChain (ZETA) to unlock 5.67% of its circulating supply worth $10.46 million.
  • May 2: Ethena (ENA) to unlock 0.73% of its circulating supply worth $11.92 million.
  • May 7: Kaspa (KAS) to unlock 0.56% of its circulating supply worth $13 million.
  • May 9: Movement (MOVA) to unlock 2.04% of its circulating supply worth $11.23 million.
• Token Launches
  • April 22: Hyperlane to airdrop its HYPER tokens.
  • April 22: BNB to be listed on Kraken.
  • 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 1 of 3: 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

• Pope Francis’ death on Easter Monday triggered significant activity in crypto markets and prediction platforms as traders aimed to capitalize on the news.
• LUCE, a Solana-based memecoin tied to the Vatican’s Holy Year 2025 mascot, surged 45% in value, reaching $0.013, according to CoinGecko data.
• Daily trading volume in the token skyrocketed to $60.27 million from $5 million the previous day, despite the price being down 95% from its November peak of 30 cents.
• Although unaffiliated with the Vatican, LUCE has attracted around 44,800 holders.
• Meanwhile, a Polymarket bet on who will be the next pope has attracted over $3.5 million in volumes since going live on Dec. 31, with over 18 candidates in the mix.
• As of Tuesday morning, Pietro Parolin leads odds at 37%, followed by Luis Antonio Tagle at 23% and Matteo Zuppi at 11%.

Derivatives Positioning

• HBAR, XLM and TRX have seen the most growth in perpetual futures open interest among major tokens in the past 24 hours. However, only TRX has seen a positive cumulative volume delta, implying an influx of new money predominantly on the bullish side.
• BTC’s open interest in has increased to 695K BTC, the most since March 25. ETH’s open interest held shy of the recent record above 11.9 million ETH.
• Perpetual funding rates for most major tokens remain marginally positive in a sign of cautiously bullish sentiment.
• On Deribit, BTC’s short and near-dated calls are now trading at par or a slight premium to puts, another sign of renewed bullishness. ETH puts, however, continue to trade at a premium to calls.
• Block options flows have been muted on Paradigm, with calendar spreads and April put spreads lifted in BTC and ETH.

Market Movements:

• BTC is up 1.45% from 4 p.m. ET Monday at $88,539.04 (24hrs: +1.16%)
• ETH is up 3.43% at $1,628.60 (24hrs: -0.84%)
• CoinDesk 20 is up 1.49% at 2,544.64 (24hrs: -0.3%)
• Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 3 bps at 2.98%
• BTC funding rate is at -0.0058% (-2.1353% annualized) on Binance

• DXY is up 0.1% at 98.38
• Gold is up 4.28% at $3,456.97/oz
• Silver is up 0.5% at $32.57/oz
• Nikkei 225 closed -0.17% at 34,220.60
• Hang Seng closed +0.78% at 21,562.32
• FTSE is up 0.49% at 8,315.81
• Euro Stoxx 50 is down 0.28% at 4,922.48
• DJIA closed on Monday -2.48% at 38,170.41
• S&P 500 closed -2.36% at 5,158.20
• Nasdaq closed -2.55% at 15,870.90
• S&P/TSX Composite Index closed -0.76% at 24,008.86
• S&P 40 Latin America closed unchanged at 2,384.47
• U.S. 10-year Treasury rate is unchanged at 4.42%
• E-mini S&P 500 futures are up 0.98% at 5,235.75
• E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 1.02% at 18,105.00
• E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are up 0.87% at 38,660.00

Bitcoin Stats:

• BTC Dominance: 64.39% (-0.09%)
• Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.01839 (1.88%)
• Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 840 EH/s
• Hashprice (spot): $45.0 PH/s
• Total Fees: 6.56BTC / $572,645
• CME Futures Open Interest: 139,765 BTC
• BTC priced in gold: 25.5 oz
• BTC vs gold market cap: 7.22%

Technical Analysis

• If you feel gold’s rally is overstretched or overdone, think again.
• The ratio between gold’s spot price and its 200-day simple moving average, currently 1.3, is well below highs seen in 2011-2012 when the yellow metal rose to its then-record price of $2,000.
• The ratio went as high as 5.80 in the 1980.
• Bitcoin tends to follow gold with a lag of couple of months.

Crypto Equities

• Strategy (MSTR): closed on Monday at $317.76 +0.18%), up 2.02% at $324.19 in pre-market
• Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $175 (-0.02%), up 1% at $176.75
• Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$15.38 (+0.13%)
• MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $12.29 (-2.92%), up 2.36% at $12.59
• Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $6.29 (-2.63%), up 2.07% at $6.42
• Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $6.39 (-3.62%)
• CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $7.47 (-0.53%), up 2.68% at $7.67
• CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $11.74 (-2.49%)
• Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $29.83 (-8.17%)
• Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $36.59 (+0.03%), unchanged in pre-market

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs:

• Daily net flow: $381.3 million
• Cumulative net flows: $35.86 billion
• Total BTC holdings ~ 1.11 million

Spot ETH ETFs

• Daily net flow: -$25.4 million
• Cumulative net flows: $2.24 billion
• Total ETH holdings ~ 3.30 million

Source: Farside Investors

Overnight Flows

Chart of the Day

• The chart shows the price of eggs in the U.S. has increased by over 200% since 2024, outperforming BTC’s 100% surge. Gold and the S&P 500 have gained 46% and 21%, respectively, over the same period.
• In other words, asset price growth has failed to compensate holders for the inflation on Main Street.

While You Were Sleeping

• Bitcoin, Euro Options Signal Bullishness Against Dollar Amid Equity and Bond Market Downturns (CoinDesk): Preference for BTC and euro call options over dollar exposure suggests investors are rotating out of U.S. assets and into bitcoin, the euro and gold.
• Dow Headed for Worst April Since 1932 as Investors Send ‘No Confidence’ Signal (The Wall Street Journal): Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments, said the Trump administration’s policies have made the U.S. economy increasingly unstable and difficult to gauge, deterring investment.
• Bitcoin Runs Into Resistance Cluster Above $88K. What Next? (CoinDesk): Behavioral aspects of trading could influence whether bitcoin rallies further or faces a new downturn from the resistance zone.
• Bearish Dollar Bets Move Toward Levels That Raise Risk of Recoil (Bloomberg): Despite widespread bets against the dollar, steady demand for Treasuries and technical signals suggest a rebound is likely, though gains may be limited or short-lived if negative news continues.
• Japanese Investors Sold $20B of Foreign Debt as Trump Tariffs Shook Markets (Financial Times): Much of Japan’s selling likely involves U.S. Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by the U.S. government, said Tomoaki Shishido, senior rates strategist at Nomura.
• Bitcoin, Stablecoins Command Over 70% of Crypto Market as BTC Pushes Higher (CoinDesk): Bitcoin dominance rose to 64.6%, the highest since January 2021, as ether slumped and the ETH-to-BTC ratio fell to a five-year low of 0.01765.

In the Ether

Bitcoin (BTC) is on the cusp of breaking out relative to the Nasdaq 100 Composite, with the current BTC/Nasdaq ratio sitting at 4.96. This means it now takes nearly five Nasdaq units to match the value of one bitcoin. The previous record of 5.08 was set in January 2025, when bitcoin hit its all-time high of over $109,000.

Historically, each market cycle has seen the ratio reach new highs—2017, 2021, and now 2025—highlighting bitcoin’s continued outperformance against the Nasdaq.

Across multiple timeframes, bitcoin is increasingly diverging from U.S. tech stocks. Year-to-date, bitcoin is down just 6%, compared to the Nasdaq’s 15% decline. Since Donald Trump’s election victory in November 2024, bitcoin has rallied 30%, while the Nasdaq has fallen 12%.

When measured against the “Magnificent Seven” mega-cap tech stocks, bitcoin remains around 20% below its all-time high from February this year. This indicates that while bitcoin has shown strength, the top tech names are holding up better than the broader Nasdaq Composite.

Strategy (MSTR), a well-known proxy for bitcoin exposure, is also holding up better than the U.S tech stocks. Since joining the QQQ ETF on Dec. 23, MSTR is down 11%, while the ETF itself has dropped over 16%. The divergence has become more pronounced in 2025: MSTR is up 6% year-to-date, compared to QQQ’s 15% decline.

This is a daily technical analysis by CoinDesk analyst and Chartered Market Technician Omkar Godbole.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) bullish advance has encountered a resistance zone above $88,000, marked by crucial levels that could make or break the ongoing recovery rally.

The resistance cluster’s first and perhaps most critical level is the 200-day simple moving average (SMA) at $88,356. The SMA is widely regarded as a key indicator of long-term momentum. Early this month, Coinbase institutional analysts called the downside break of the 200-day SMA in March a sign of the onset of a potential crypto winter.

So, a fresh move above the 200-day SMA could be taken to represent a renewed bullish shift in momentum.

Such a move would trigger a dual breakout, as the Ichimoku cloud’s upper end is located close to the 200-day SMA. A move above the Ichimoku cloud is also said to reflect a bullish shift in momentum.

Developed by a Japanese journalist in the 1960s, the Ichimoku cloud is a technical analysis indicator that offers a comprehensive view of market momentum, support, and resistance levels. The indicator comprises five lines: Leading Span A, Leading Span B, Conversion Line or Tenkan-Sen (T), Base Line or Kijun-Sen (K) and a lagging closing price line. The difference between Leading Span A and B forms the Ichimoku Cloud.

The third and final level forming the resistance cluster is the high of $88,804 on March 24, from where the market turned lower and fell back to $75,000.

A make-or-break resistance zone?

Behavioural aspects of trading come into play when an asset approaches a resistance zone, especially at key levels like the 200-day SMA and the Ichimoku cloud.

Prospect theory suggests that people are typically risk-averse with respect to gains and risk-seeking with respect to losses, known as the “reflection effect.” So, as traders, people tend to be risk-averse while locking in profits and keep losing trades open.

This tendency is amplified when an asset encounters a significant resistance zone. Traders who entered the bitcoin market around $75K, anticipating a rebound, may feel pressured to take profits as the price approaches this resistance. Such selling could, in turn, slow the price ascent or even trigger a new downturn.

Conversely, if bitcoin successfully breaks through the resistance zone, the fear of missing out could prompt more traders to make bullish bets, further fueling bullish momentum and pushing the price higher.

Mantra, the real-world asset tokenization platform whose OM token crashed earlier this month, is pushing to burn as much as 16.5% of its total supply valued about $160 million to boost staking rewards after talks with key partners.

The proposal to burn as many as 300 million of its 1.8 billion tokens will drop the bonded ratio from 31.47% to 25.30%. It includes a confirmed tranche of 150 million OM, or about $80 million, belonging to founder John Patrick Mullin and an additional set of tokens owned by “ecosystem partners.” Specifics were not shared in a Monday update.

Mullin’s tokens are part of his team allocation that were staked when the network first started in October 2024. The burn process, which requires unstaking, will wrap up by April 29, when the tokens hit the network’s burn address.

“The process of unstaking 150 million tokens from the Team and Core Contributor bucket has now begun,” the team said.

The move follows the OM’s brutal 90% price crash on April 13, which erased over $5 billion in market value in just hours. The Mantra team pinned the collapse on “reckless liquidations” by exchanges at the time amid speculation some investors were liquidating their positions.

Mantra lets users tokenize real-world assets (RWAs) like real estate and commodities, enabling compliant digital investments in tangible assets. Its OM token facilitates transactions and governance.

In January, Mantra partnered with DAMAC Group, a UAE-based conglomerate, to tokenize $1 billion in assets, including real estate, hospitality and data centers, boosting the OM token’s value.

OM was among the biggest market gainers in 2024, rising more than 400% on relatively low public conversation on crypto-related social media. The strength of the move intrigued traders and investors alike.

The OM price is down 3.3% over the past 24 hours despite the burn announcement, indicative of a steep hit in investor confidence.

WazirX, the crypto exchange hit hard by a $234.9 million hack last year, says it’s gearing up to restart operations and begin creditor payments after a key Singapore court hearing on May 13.

The exchange’s Singapore-based parent company, Zettai, has wrapped up all prep work for the hearing, where the court will decide on approving WazirX’s restructuring and user compensation plan.

“While we’ve worked to stay aligned with the previously shared timelines, court proceedings operate independently, and we respect that process. After the Scheme is sanctioned, the First Distribution and restart will follow within 10 business days from the Effective Scheme Date, as outlined earlier,” WazirX said in an X post.

A North Korean attack on WazirX last year wiped out nearly 45% of user assets from a Safe Multisig wallet, forcing the platform to halt withdrawals and file a restructuring plan to partly return assets.

Earlier this month, 93.1% of creditors — holding 94.6% of the $196 million in approved claims — backed the restructuring plan in a vote. The plan involves issuing tradable Recovery Tokens with periodic buybacks and launching a decentralized exchange.

WazirX’s WRX tokens are little-changed in the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin (BTC) held steady above $88,000 early Tuesday as the Japanese yen crossed the psychological level of 140 against the U.S. dollar, as tariff concerns and risks of a Federal Reserve chairman shuffle in the states broadened the appeal of safe-haven assets.

Yen rose nearly 1% to 139.93 against the dollar, its strongest level since September. Gold surged to fresh highs at $3,494 per ounce in Asian morning hours.

Per reports, Trump is blaming the Fed for the economic fallout from the trade war if the central bank doesn’t cut rates soon — and firing the chief usurps the appearance of independence the Federal Reserve currently enjoys.

BTC added just over 1% to continue a steady rise since Sunday. Ether (ETH), Cardano’s ADA, XRP, and Solana’s SOL showed signs of profit-taking with declines of as much as 3%, CoinGecko data shows.

Kaspa’s KAS and Polygon’s POL rose as much as 9% to lead gains among mid-caps, albeit on no immediate catalysts.

Traders pointed out that gains in bitcoin amid global ongoings were cementing its place as a possible risk-off asset.

“Today’s rise is further evidence of bitcoin’s growing role as a risk-off asset,” Gerry O’Shea, Head of Global Market Insights at Hashdex, told CoinDesk in an email. “In the last five years, bitcoin has had double-digit returns in the months following major geopolitical and macro events such as the COVID pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the U.S. banking crisis in 2023.”

“Gold is now trading at its nominal all-time high, which could foreshadow strong performance from bitcoin if investors’ appetite for risk-off assets increases — while global liquidity is increasing and the US regulatory environment is rapidly improving,” O’Shea added.

Surging gold prices and bitcoin’s (BTC) relatively strong price action amid a global market sell-off have some traders revisiting the latter’s role as “digital gold” — a big narrative in bitcoin’s early years but one that has lost steam in recent times.

What analysts are saying

Meanwhile, chart watchers say bitcoin crossed a key technical indicator this week that puts it in place for a higher move in the coming days.

“Bitcoin jumped to 87,500 on Monday, testing the late March highs,” Alex Kuptsikevich, the FxPro chief market analyst, told CoinDesk. “The leading cryptocurrency managed to bounce off the 50-day moving average, around which it had been hovering for the past week and a half.”

“A solid close above the $88,000 area would signal a break in the downtrend and a return to levels above the 200-day moving average. A confident move higher from current levels would be a key signal for the entire market, once again positioning BTC as the flagship set to lead the way,” Kuptsikevich added.

Moving averages in financial markets are tools used to smooth out price data over time, showing the average price of an asset (like a stock) over a specific period. The 50-day and 200-day moving averages are commonly used because they represent medium- and long-term trends, respectively.

These periods are widely followed, making them self-fulfilling as many traders act on them, reinforcing their importance.

Here’s what a machine’s read of the market is, powered by CoinDesk’s AI-driven market insights bot.

ADA Price Analysis

• ADA broke key resistance at $0.630 amid broader crypto market recovery.
• Grayscale’s spot ADA ETF filing sees approval odds jump to 61%, potentially opening doors for institutional investment.
• Clear bullish reversal starting April 21, with volume significantly increasing to over 68 million during the breakout candle.
• Fibonacci retracement levels suggest potential continuation toward $0.650.

XRP Price Analysis

• XRP established a clear uptrend with a 3.4% overall range ($2.039-$2.143) over the analyzed period.
• Strong support identified at $2.06, with buyers consistently stepping in at this level.
• Significant breakout occurred on April 21, when XRP surged 4.3% in just two hours, breaking through previous resistance at $2.09.
• Volume analysis confirms genuine buying interest, with trading activity spiking to over 100M during breakout periods.

ETH Price Analysis

• Ethereum enters historical “buy zone” according to analyst Ali Martinez, with ETH trading below the lower MVRV Price Band—a metric that has previously signaled strong buying opportunities.
• ETH currently trades in tight consolidation between $1,550-$1,630, with critical support at $1,500 and resistance at $1,700, as investors await a decisive breakout amid global economic pressures.
• Clear support level established at $1,570 with resistance at $1,650, with trading volume spiking to 490,365 during the recent selloff.
• The 48-hour price range of $1,544-$1,593 (3.1%) suggests continued market instability.
• Fibonacci retracement levels indicate potential consolidation between $1,565-$1,590 before establishing a definitive trend direction.

In a surprising development, options linked to bitcoin (BTC) and the euro-dollar (EUR/USD) exchange rate are indicating strength against the U.S. dollar despite a downturn in the U.S. stock market. This trend suggests the “sell America” trade is gathering pace.

Currently, bitcoin’s short- and near-dated risk reversals – which measure the demand for call options relative to put options – were slightly positive, indicating a bullish bias. The data, drawn from sources like Deribit and Amberdata, signals a recovery from the previous trend where there was a consistent preference for puts in near-dated options.

In parallel, the one-month EUR/USD risk reversal has also flipped to positive, demonstrating a favorable outlook for EUR call options, according to data tracked by Jens Nordvig, founder and CEO of Exante Data Inc.

A call option gives the buyer asymmetric upside exposure to the underlying asset, while a put option protects against price declines. Consequently, a call buyer is implicitly bullish, whereas a put buyer is bearish, seeking to hedge or profit from anticipated price drops.

The preference for BTC and EUR call options over the dollar indicates expectations for continued capital rotation away from U.S. assets, which have recently fallen out of favor with investors, and into bitcoin, the euro, and other assets such as gold. .

On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted over 700 points, bringing its month-to-date decline to more than 9%. In tandem, the dollar index—reflecting the greenback’s performance against major fiat currencies, including the euro—fell to a three-year low of 98, down 10% over the past three months. Additionally, prices for longer-duration Treasury notes have dropped, resulting in the 30-year yield rising by over five basis points to 4.90%.

The concurrent sell-off in U.S. assets aligns with increasing policy uncertainty stemming from President Donald Trump’s trade war and his reported intentions to dismiss Fed Chair Jerome Powell and calls for a rethink of trading strategies.

“We are in a STRATEGIC asset allocation shift that is causing all kind of correlations to flip in a historical way. It is a time for many investors to take a step back, and think fresh,” Nordvig said on X.

On Monday, BTC rose past $88,000, with the EUR/USD climbing to 1.1575, the highest since November 2021. Gold topped the $3,400 per ounce price mark for the first time and rose to a new lifetime high of $3,495 at press time.

Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital has apparently swapped $100 million worth of ether (ETH) for solana’s SOL.

According to Wu Blockchain, on-chain data suggests that Galaxy has swapped out a considerable amount of its ETH holdings for SOL. Over the last two weeks, Galaxy has transferred 65,600 ETH – or about $105 million – to Binance and has withdrawn 752,240 SOL (approximately $98.37 million).

Galaxy may have made the move because ETH continues to be in “structural decline” according to a recent note from Standard Chartered, which slashed its year-end target price for the asset.

Data from an Arkham dashboard shows that the firm holds $87.9 million ETH versus $23.86 million SOL.

Galaxy did not immediately return a request for comment from CoinDesk.

Market data shows that in the last month, SOL is up 8% while ETH is down nearly 20%.

Standard Chartered estimated in its note that Base has cut $50 billion from its market cap, but also argued that tokenized real-world assets could help stabilize Ethereum.

Many blockchain metrics would support Standard Chartered’s thesis, as transactions on Solana have rocketed past Ethereum in the last three months.

A Dune dashboard shows that decentralized exchange (DEX) volume on Solana has moved past $500 billion in the last three months, while DEX volume on Ethereum is less than $400 billion. Active addresses on Solana are over 220 million while Ethereum and Ethereum Layer-2 addresses are just over 80 million.

One idea, first proposed by Tron’s Justin Sun, to reverse this “structural decline” of Ethereum has been a tax on Layer-2s.

“All collected taxes will be used to repurchase ETH and burn it in a fully decentralized manner,” he wrote on X. This idea, however, hasn’t been formalized into an Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) which would be the first step in it becoming reality.

Meanwhile, flow data from the Ether ETFs shows that investors moved nearly $600 million out of these listed products over the last two months.

Bitcoin is the crypto sector’s top asset and is also universally defined by U.S. regulators and courts as a commodity, putting it under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That agency is now seeking public comments on whether it should open the wider world of derivatives to around-the-clock trading, as already executed for bitcoin and other digital assets.

Though the CFTC is expected to be established as a crypto market regulator in Congress’ ongoing effort to establish industry rules, the agency’s invitation for comments issued on Monday doesn’t explicitly discuss digital assets oversight. The request notes that “technological advancements and market demand” are pushing CFTC-regulated firms toward being able to handle transactions at all times.

“As I have long said, the CFTC must take a forward-looking approach to shifts in market structure to ensure our markets remain vibrant and resilient while protecting all participants,” said Acting Chairman Caroline Pham, in a statement. She was tapped by President Donald Trump to run the agency while it awaits the Senate confirmation of its chairman nominee, Brian Quintenz.

Trading without downtime presents a host of challenges for U.S. markets unaccustomed to it, according to the request, including “what governance frameworks, exchange staffing models and technologies would be necessary to ensure market integrity and operational resilience, as well as compliance with all core principles, under a continuous trading model.” Such an expansion would require firms to handle live maintenance and technology patches and human monitoring of the systems and markets during the extended hours, which are issues already long wrestled with by digital assets operations.

The CFTC would still need a change in law before it could have direct authority over actual spot-market trading of bitcoin and other tokens that aren’t eventually categorized as securities, which would get Securities and Exchange Commission oversight. If the agency is ultimately a major regulator of trading and of the platforms and firms that handle customers’ transactions, that’s a space in which 24-hour, seven-days-a-week activity is already the model.