Live Above The Madness
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 2464.88, up 0.4% (+10.35) since 4 p.m. ET on Friday.
Eighteen of 20 assets are trading higher.
Leaders: FIL (+3.7%) and POL (+3.7%).
Laggards: ADA (-0.2%) and BTC (-0.2%).
The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.
A Brazilian court has sentenced three executives behind the collapsed crypto scheme Braiscompany to a combined 171 years in prison, concluding one of the country’s largest crypto fraud cases to date.
Federal Judge Vinicius Costa Vidor found Joel Ferreira de Souza, the scheme’s alleged mastermind, guilty of operating an unlicensed financial institution and laundering millions through shell companies and unregulated crypto wallets, according to local media.
De Souza received the steepest sentence: 128 years behind bars. Two others—Gesana Rayane Silva and Victor Veronez—received 27 and 15 years, respectively, for their roles in managing cash and acting as intermediaries in the scheme.
The ruling comes after Brazil’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) accused five individuals of orchestrating a pyramid structure that raised R$1.11 billion ($190 million) from roughly 20,000 investors.
Braiscompany promised outsized returns through crypto trading but allegedly ran a parallel financial system using informal transfers and high-commission operations.
The court also ordered the seizure of R$36 million, though it’s unclear how much victims will recover. According to Artêmio Picanço, a lawyer representing several victims, those affected must file civil claims soon before the funds are absorbed by the state.
Two defendants were acquitted for lack of evidence. The rest, the judge ruled, “acted to disguise the illicit origin” of the money, running operations that mimicked legitimate investment practices but served to enrich insiders.
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!
By Francisco Rodrigues
Spot BTC ETFs:
Spot ETH ETFs
Source: Farside Investors
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.
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.
Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov took his country a step closer to issuing its own central bank digital currency Thursday, signing legislation that gives the “digital som” legal status.
The central Asian country is still deciding whether or not to issue a CBDC, but Thursday’s amendments to the Constitutional Law of the Kyrgyz Republic ensures that the digital som will be treated as legal tender if the central bank goes ahead with issuing a CBDC.
“The purpose of the Constitutional Law is to launch a pilot project of a prototype of a national digital currency, the ‘digital som,’ as well as to create a legal basis and its status,” a statement on the president’s site said.
Under the new provisions, the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic will be able to develop and approve rules for conducting payments on the digital som platform.
These provisions, described as amendments on the president’s website, were first adopted on March 20 by Kyrgyzstan’s supreme council. The country is due to begin testing the digital som this year, according to local news outlet Trend News Agency. The country is not expected to make a final decision on whether to issue the CBDC until next year.
The idea of CBDCs has been controversial among some crypto proponents, but countries like the U.K., Nigeria, Jamaica and the Bahamas — as well as the European Union’s multinational bloc — have moved in the direction of issuing a CBDC, while other countries like the U.S. have largely moved away from the idea of issuing one.
Hidden Road, the prime brokerage firm that’s being acquired by Ripple, has obtained approval to operate as a U.S. broker-dealer from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the company said Thursday.
The license, granted to its subsidiary Hidden Road Partners CIV US LLC, will allow the firm to expand its fixed income prime brokerage platform, according to the press release. With the broker-dealer status, the firm plans to offer institutional clients a broader range of regulatory-compliant services in clearing, financing and prime brokerage of fixed income assets.
“[This] is a significant step in the development of Hidden Road’s fixed income prime brokerage platform and bolsters our capabilities in traditional financial markets,” Noel Kimmel, the firm’s president, said in a statement.
The development follows Hidden Road’s announcement earlier this month that it had entered into an agreement to be acquired for $1.25 billion by Ripple, the blockchain infrastructure services firm closely associated with the XRP Ledger (XRPL) network. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and expected to close in the coming months.
Backed by Ripple’s resources, Hidden Road said it expects to scale services significantly and position itself as one of the largest non-bank prime brokers. The firm also said earlier that it plans to migrate its post-trade operations onto the XRPL network, aiming to reduce costs and streamline settlement processes.
Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the 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.
Global economic tensions and trade policy uncertainties continue to create volatility in the crypto market, with SOL navigating these challenges better than many alternatives.
Solana token’s price rose more than 4% on Thursday, while the broader market gauge, CoinDesk 20, rose about 3%.
The $125-$127 range for SOL has emerged as a critical support zone that successfully rejected multiple downside attempts, while the $133.50-$133.60 area represents significant resistance, according to CoinDesk Research’s technical analysis model.
Blockchain data shows over 32 million SOL (more than 5% of the total supply) accumulated at the $129.79 level, establishing it as a crucial pivot point for future price action.
SOL established a well-defined support zone between $125-127, which successfully rejected multiple downside attempts.
The price demonstrates strong resiliency, recovering 4.5% from its April 16th low of $123.64 to $135.57, establishing a clear uptrend.
Canada launched the first spot Solana ETFs in North America on April 16, issued by asset managers including 3iQ, Purpose, Evolve, and CI, boosting institutional interest.
Solana has reclaimed the top spot in DEX activity, surpassing Ethereum after a 16% gain over seven days, with total value locked (TVL) increasing by 12% to $7.08 billion.
Volume analysis shows particularly strong accumulation during the April 16th afternoon surge, with over 3 million units traded as the price broke through the $130 resistance level.
The Fibonacci retracement from the April 14th high ($136.01) to the April 16 low suggests the recent rally has reclaimed the critical 61.8% level.
In the final 100 minutes of trading, SOL experienced a significant downward correction, plummeting from $134.11 to $130.81, representing a 2.5% decline.
The sell-off intensified around 14:03-14:07, when volume spiked dramatically to over 92,000 units during a single-minute candle.
A strong resistance zone at $133.50-$133.60 rejected multiple recovery attempts.
A notable breakdown occurred at the $132.00 support level, triggering cascading liquidations.
Prices have now retraced beyond the 78.6% Fibonacci level, suggesting potential continuation toward the $125-127 support zone if bearish momentum persists.
Disclaimer: This article was generated with 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. This article may include information from external sources, which are listed below when applicable.
External References:
“Solana’s Cost Basis Shifts Sharply: $129 Emerges as a Key Pivot Zone,” published April 16, 2025.
NewsBTC, “Solana Retests Bearish Breakout Zone – $65 Target Still In Play?” published April 17, 2025.
Cointelegraph, “Why Is Solana Price Up This Week?” published April 12, 2025.
CryptoPotato, “Solana (SOL) Jumps by 7% Daily, Bitcoin (BTC) Eyes $85K Again (Market Watch),” published April 17, 2025.
Cointelegraph, “Solana Price Is Up 36% From Its Crypto Market Crash Lows — Is $180 SOL the Next Stop?” published April 16, 2025.
Richard Kim, the founder of crypto casino Zero Edge, was arrested on Tuesday following allegations that he had gambled away investors’ funds.
According to an FBI complaint filed on Tuesday in the Southern District of New York, Kim “fraudulently induced investors to invest in Zero Edge, a cryptocurrency technology company he founded, and then misappropriated millions of dollars in those investors’ funds.”
The FBI said Kim lost “nearly all” of the $7 million he raised from investors and charged him with securities fraud and wire fraud. According to court records, Kim posted a secured bond of $250,000 and put up $100,000 in “cash or real property” to secure it.
CoinDesk was first to report on the Zero Edge incident in July of last year. In an interview at the time, Kim revealed to CoinDesk that he had gambled away more than $3.67 million of his investors’ funds through a series of high-risk leveraged crypto trades.
“The downfall began with a careless mistake — a phishing site that cost $80k,” Kim said in his own recollection of what went wrong, which he shared with CoinDesk in a written statement that he later published as a public apology. “This triggered my old demons, the need to ‘make it back’ to preserve my reputation.”
According to Kim, he “started down a negative spiral of leverage trading, raising more capital, and hiding the truth.”
After losing most of the $7 million he had raised for Zero Edge, Kim told CoinDesk he reported himself to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s public tip line.
“Part of my rationale in reaching out proactively to the SEC was to say, OK guys, I really f—d up. I lost this money. It was grossly negligent. But I didn’t intend to go run away with this money,” he told CoinDesk in an interview.
According to the FBI complaint, Kim’s previous accounts “misleadingly described where investors’ funds had gone, and why, and omitted to inform investors that certain funds had been transferred to Shuffle.com, the gambling website.”
Kim’s claim that he initially lost $80,000 to a phishing scam and never “mix[ed] personal and business funds,” according to the FBI, failed to account for the fact that he had also sent company funds to an online sportsbook and personal crypto investment accounts.
Kim did not immediately respond to a request for comment this week.
Kim’s arrest marks a striking fall from grace. A former executive of Galaxy, the crypto investment firm headed by Michael Novogratz, Kim also led elite trading desks at JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. Before that, he was an attorney with the prestigious law firm Cleary Gottlieb.
Galaxy was among the investors in Zero Edge who lost money as a result of Kim’s activities.
“Mr. Kim left Galaxy in March 2024 to start Zero Edge, a company in which Galaxy had an immaterial balance-sheet investment,” said Michael Wursthorn, Galaxy’s head of communications. “Upon learning of certain actions taken by Mr. Kim in his role at Zero Edge, we, along with other investors, reported his conduct to the authorities.”
Kim pitched Zero Edge as a first-of-its-kind crypto casino that would level the playing field for gamblers through improved transparency.
Zero Edge never launched, but Kim told CoinDesk last year that he was motivated to build it because of his history with gambling addiction and his frustration that the house frequently had an opaque and unfair edge over players.
Read more: Crypto Casino Founder Apologizes for Gambling Away Investor Funds
In today’s crypto for advisors, Todd Bendell from Amphibian Capital breaks down bitcoin yield products as a strategy to grow bitcoin holdings beyond price appreciation.
Then, Rich Rines, an initial Core DAO developer, provides guidance to Bitcoin developers in Ask an Expert.
Exclusive event alert for financial advisors: Join CoinDesk for Wealth Management Day on May 15th at Consensus Toronto. Registered wealth advisors are provided with their own day of networking and learning where they will acquire timely and actionable information about digital assets. Approved advisors receive a complimentary 3-day Platinum Pass ($1,750 value) to Consensus. Apply today.
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Bitcoin was never meant to sit idle.
For over a decade, bitcoin has served as a digital store of value, a hedge against monetary debasement and more recently, a core allocation in institutional portfolios. As the asset matures and infrastructure improves, long-term holders are asking a new question: How do I put my bitcoin to work — without leaving the Bitcoin ecosystem?
The answer lies in a growing but underexplored category of strategies: BTC-on-BTC yield.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t about lending your BTC on unregulated platforms or chasing high annual percentage yields (APYs) à la BlockFi. That playbook collapsed under the weight of counterparty risk and opacity. What’s emerged over the last two years is a more institutional alternative — diversified, risk-managed access to systematic arbitrage and quantitative strategies, all denominated in bitcoin.
Why BTC-native yield matters
For most assets, it’s a given that money should work for you. We don’t keep dollars under a mattress or tucked away on a thumb drive — we invest them. Yet in the bitcoin world, the dominant narrative has long been “hold and wait.”
That mindset made sense when bitcoin was fighting for legitimacy. But in today’s environment — where BTC is being adopted by sovereign wealth funds and traded on major exchanges — long-term holders need better tools.
BTC-on-BTC yield solves this. It aligns with the ethos of accumulating more BTC but does so through institutional-grade strategies that aim to generate returns in BTC, not just on BTC. That distinction matters.
Cold storage isn’t a strategy
There’s also a myth that simply holding bitcoin in cold storage is the safest option. The phrase “not your keys, not your coins” has become dogma — but it deserves a second look.
In reality, cold storage comes with its own risks: human error, hardware failure, loss of keys and in many cases, an inability to generate any yield whatsoever. Meanwhile, professional custodians — regulated, insured and audited — are now standard infrastructure providers in digital asset management.
For allocators managing material BTC positions, yield-generating custody isn’t a tradeoff. It’s an upgrade.
How these strategies work
Today’s BTC-native yield opportunities span a wide range — from delta-neutral basis trades and statistical arbitrage to DeFi yield farming and machine learning-driven quant execution — but all settled in BTC.
Returns are calculated and distributed in kind. The objective is simple: accumulate more BTC over time, without needing to rely solely on price appreciation.
By allocating across a diversified mix of strategies and managers, investors can pursue consistent BTC growth while mitigating single-strategy or single-manager risk.
Why BTC-on BTC yield is timely
Several forces are converging right now:
Volatility has returned. Major liquidation events — like the $10 billion flush in February — create dislocations that sophisticated funds can capitalize on.
Infrastructure is stronger than ever. Custody, execution and risk tools have matured significantly since the last cycle.
Institutional interest is real. ETFs have opened the floodgates — but most capital is still under-allocated and under-deployed.
In short, bitcoin is growing up. The question is whether the strategies around it will grow with it.
Rethinking HODLing
BTC-on-BTC yield and long-term holding aren’t mutually exclusive. Allocators can continue to hold core BTC positions while using active strategies to pursue steady accumulation.
That requires moving beyond cold storage maxims and exploring yield strategies that reflect the sophistication of today’s markets. With proper risk controls, BTC-native yield offers a pragmatic path to accumulate more BTC without abandoning its core principles.
The bottom line is that bitcoin doesn’t have to sit on the sidelines. It can move with the market — and grow with it.
For allocators thinking in decades, BTC-on-BTC yield opens the door to a more productive bitcoin strategy — one that matches conviction with action.
– Todd Bendell, Managing General Partner, Amphibian Capital
Q. What’s the best way to align early developer incentives with long-term protocol value?
A. The key is to reward real product-market fit and real users — not short-term speculation. That starts with building tight relationships and solving problems for real communities. From there, it’s about fostering an “eat what you kill” ecosystem, in which builders who ship products people actually use are rewarded with real economic upside — not just points, grants or temporary incentives. When developers are compensated based on the value they create for users, long-term alignment takes care of itself.
Q. When just starting out in crypto, how can developers filter for signal over noise?
A. Don’t just chase the hot thing — look for what will still matter in 5 to 10 years. That’s one of the key reasons Bitcoin remains a compelling foundation for builders. It has dedicated users, immense value and a clear product-market fit. Developers should focus on real usage and demand instead of short-term token price action. If you’re building something that keeps people engaged because it’s useful — not because it’s yield-farming season — you’re already filtering signal from noise.
Q. What lessons from Bitcoin’s design philosophy are still underutilized?
A. Bitcoin is dominant not because it does the most, but because it does one thing better than anyone else. Its product-market fit as digital gold is crypto’s most proven use case — and yet it’s still underrated. Too many forget that simplicity with real utility wins. Building around Bitcoin and extending its utility without compromising its foundation remains one of the most underrated opportunities in the space today.
– Rich Rines, an initial contributor, Core DAO
CoinDesk’s Digital Assets Quarterly Report provides a comprehensive analysis of the crypto market’s performance.
Sweden is the latest country to explore using bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the end of its crypto “enforcement by prosecution” policies.
