Bitcoin traders warn BTC price rally may stall at $90K
Bitcoin (BTC) rallied above $89,000 on April 22, its highest level since early March, buoyed by strong spot demand during US trading hours on April 21. The recovery, however, faced a serious challenge in breaking above $90,000 as sell-side liquidity blocked the way.BTC/USD daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewBitcoin price faces stiff resistance on the upsideData from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price has been steadily moving toward the $89,000 level over the last six hours, leading to questions about whether the barrier at $90,00 will finally give in.BTC/USD hourly chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView“BTC is closing in on the big $ 90 K-$91 K horizontal area which acted as the previous range low,” said popular trader Daan Crypto Trades in an April 22 post on X. The trader explained that the price had swept the $89,000 level as it was consolidating below it. Note that the 200-day simple moving average (SMA) is currently located just above this level, reinforcing its significance.Daan Crypto Trades said that the price needs to overcome these barriers in order to confirm a breakout. “Quite a few resistances close by, but a few percentage moves and you’ll break through all of them, and the chart looks pretty great. Bulls know what to do.”BTC/USD daily chart. Source: Daan Crypto TradesBitcoin price breaking $91-$92K is key — AnalystMeanwhile, CryptoQuant’s head of Research, Julio Moreno, said that the traders’ onchain realized price between $91,000 and $92,000 is the real test for Bitcoin bulls. Related: Bitcoin risks 10%-15% BTC price dip after key rejection near $89KAccording to Moreno, the traders’ realized price usually acts as resistance when the crypto market is bearish, which is the current situation of Bitcoin.Source: Julio MorenoThis article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
Unpacking Mantra’s OM crash requires forensic study — CertiK exec
Mantra founder and CEO John Mullin has begun an $80 million burn of OM tokens to regain users’ trust following the token’s crash earlier in April. However, the question of the underlying reasons for the crash remains unanswered, blockchain investigators told Cointelegraph.Unpacking Mantra’s OM crash would require a detailed forensic study rather than just basic blockchain analysis, said Natalie Newson, senior blockchain investigator at the blockchain security firm CertiK.“A full forensic investigation, akin to what we saw post-FTX, would be needed to substantiate claims of calculated exploitation,” Newson told Cointelegraph, highlighting challenges of tracing over-the-counter (OTC) transactions.Newson’s perspective on the OM crash came days after Mantra released its post-crash statement, asking centralized exchange partners to collaborate on further unpacking the incident.Onchain activity versus opaque OTC dealsAddressing the OM token crash, Newson stressed the importance of distinguishing between public onchain activity and the “more opaque nature of OTC deals.”Mantra CEO Mullin disclosed in an interview with Coffeezilla on April 15 that the Mantra team had “done a small amount of OTCs,” up to $30 million of OM tokens.Mantra’s founder and CEO, John Mullin, in an interview with Coffeezilla. Source: YouTubeUnlike traceable transactions on centralized exchanges, OTC crypto transfers involve a method of buying and selling cryptocurrencies outside of exchanges, designed to enable deep liquidity and big trades while mitigating the volatility of prices.“In this case, the accumulation of approximately 100 million OM by a whale appears to have been the result of secondary market transactions — not necessarily direct activity from Mantra insiders,” Newson said.Analysis by Arkham or Nansen is not enoughAs previously mentioned, Mullin denied allegations that the OM crash resulted from an insider token dump, claiming that blockchain analytics platform Arkham had “mislabelled” some wallets.Newson said that data from Arkham and similar platforms like Nansen would be insufficient to confirm or deny insider involvement.“To confirm coordinated insider behavior, it would likely require more than just basic wallet tracing on platforms like Arkham or Nansen,” Newson said, adding:“Blockchain analytics tools can provide directional clues, but without access to offchain agreements and centralized exchange records, drawing definitive conclusions would be difficult.”Newson is not alone in highlighting the complicated nature of tracing transactions in the OM token crash.Related: Mantra OM token crash exposes ‘critical’ liquidity issues in crypto“There are ways to get data from the node, but it does not seem to be easy to get a full history,” Whale Alert’s co-founder Frank Weert told Cointelegraph.Mullin previously said that the team had been considering hiring a forensic auditor following the OM crash but had made no decision as of April 16.Arkham did not respond to multiple Cointelegraph inquiries to comment on the Mantra incident.Magazine: Altcoin season to hit in Q2? Mantra’s plan to win trust: Hodler’s Digest, April 13 – 19
Bitdeer secures $60M to boost Bitcoin ASIC production amid record hashrate
Bitcoin mining firm Bitdeer secured $60 million in loans to ramp up its Bitcoin ASIC manufacturing efforts as global mining competition intensifies amid record-breaking network hashrates.According to its annual report, Bitdeer entered a loan agreement in April with affiliate firm Matrixport, a crypto financial services company founded by Bitdeer’s chairman, Jihan Wu.The facility offers up to $200 million, backed by Bitdeer’s Sealminer hardware, with a floating interest rate of 9% plus market benchmarks. As of April 21, Bitdeer had drawn $43 million from the credit line.Source: Bitdeer’s Annual ReportThe latest funding adds to a $17 million unsecured loan obtained in January, alongside previous capital raises totaling $572.5 million via convertible notes in 2024. Bitdeer also issued over six million shares, raising nearly $119 million in equity markets this year.Related: Top Bitcoin miners produced nearly $800M of BTC in Q1 2025Bitdeer acquires 101 MW Alberta power projectIn February 2025, Bitdeer acquired a fully licensed 101 megawatt (MW) gas-fired power project near Fox Creek, Alberta, for $21.7 million in cash, per the annual filing.The site, with potential to scale up to 1 gigawatt, includes all necessary permits for construction and a 99 MW grid connection. The power plant is set to be developed with an EPC partner and is expected to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2026.In March, the company also purchased 40 MW worth of liquid-cooled mining containers from Saiheat.More recently, it was reported that Bitdeer is expanding its self-mining operations and investing in United States-based production. The shift came in response to cooling demand for its mining hardware from other miners.“Our plan going forward is to prioritize our own self-mining,” Jeff LaBerge, Bitdeer’s head of capital markets and strategic initiatives, reportedly said. Additionally, on Feb. 28, 2025, Bitdeer launched a $20 million share repurchase program, effective through February 2026. To date, it has repurchased 1,056,500 Class A shares valued at about $12 million under this program.Related: American Bitcoin’s ambition is to dominate mining — Hut 8 CEOBitcoin hashrate surges while miner revenues shrinkBitdeer’s expansion comes as Bitcoin’s network computing power hit a record 1 sextillion hashes per second in early April, according to BitInfoCharts.Bitcoin hashrate. Source: BitInfoChartsA higher hashrate indicates that more miners (or more powerful machines) are competing to solve Bitcoin blocks. As competition rises, each individual miner’s chance of earning block rewards decreases, implying declining profitability.Further hurting miner revenue are low transaction fees. As of now, the average Bitcoin transaction fee hovers around $1, down from over $16 per transfer in April last year, according to YCharts.The low transaction fees and rising hashrate forced public miners to sell over 40% of their BTC production in March — the highest since late 2024.Firms like Hive, Bitfarms and Ionic Digital reportedly sold more than 100% of their monthly output.Magazine: Altcoin season to hit in Q2? Mantra’s plan to win trust: Hodler’s Digest, April 13 – 19
Solana whale sits on $153M profit after 4-year staking play
A Solana address with over 1 million tokens is sitting on more than $153 million in profit after a four-year staking play on the crypto asset. Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain flagged the wallet address of a whale that staked nearly 1 million Solana (SOL) tokens in 2021. At the time of the staking, Solana tokens were worth around $27, which means the trader spent about $27 million to execute the play. Four years later, the whale’s total staked Solana holdings have reached 1.29 million. With Solana appreciating to about $140, the whale’s holdings have increased in value to about $180 million. On April 22, the whale started offloading a portion of the token stash to cash out on the gains. Lookonchain reported that the whale had unstaked 100,000 SOL tokens (about $14 million) and sent them to Binance. Sending tokens to crypto exchanges often indicates an intent to sell. Lookonchain said the whale still has 1.19 million Solana, worth around $166 million. Since the trader spent $27 million on the play, the total unrealized profit for the address is about $153 million. Source: LookonchainSolana whales turn $37 million to $200 million in four-year playThe Solana whale’s unstaking and token offloading follow another Solana staking play that involved hundreds of millions earlier in April. On April 4, Arkham Intelligence data showed four wallets that staked $37 million in tokens in 2021 had their tokens unlocked, meaning they can unstake and sell them. The blockchain intelligence platform called the event “the largest single-day unlock of staked SOL.”During the unlock, the tokens were worth over $206 million. After the tokens were unlocked, about $50 million in tokens were sold. Related: Babylon total value locked drops 32% as wallets unstake $1.2B in BitcoinSolana briefly flips Ethereum in staking market capAs many whales have turned to Solana for staking plays, the network briefly flipped Ethereum in the staking market cap. On April 20, the blockchain overtook Ethereum in staked token value after reaching over $53 billion. Still, the event was short-lived as Ethereum recovered the top spot. While the event may seem bullish, community members were split on whether Solana overtaking Ethereum was bullish or bearish for the network. Magazine: Uni students crypto ‘grooming’ scandal, 67K scammed by fake women: Asia Express
A guide to crypto trading bots: Analyzing strategies and performance
The cryptocurrency market has witnessed a surge in the adoption of automated trading solutions, with trading bots gaining prominence for their ability to analyze vast data sets and execute trades with precision.Cointelegraph has dissected historical bot revenues and token price rollercoasters and backtested strategy returns against the buy-and-hold yardstick to decode what bots shine brightest — and when — so you can pick the perfect bot to match your style and stomach for risk.We have examined three types of trading bots: Telegram bots trading on decentralized exchanges (DEX), non-Telegram bots trading on DEXs and on centralized exchanges (CEXs), and the recently evolving AI agent bots.Choosing the right trading bot depends on the user’s goals, risk tolerance and experience. At a glance:Telegram bots are ideal for fast, opportunistic trading like token launches and memecoins.AI agent bots, such as ai16z or Virtuals, suit users who want hands-off automation and are comfortable with experimental strategies.CEX bots offer the most control and are best for structured strategies like dollar-cost averaging (DCA), grid or signal-based trading.Bot trading strategies and performanceTrading bots are sophisticated automated systems that use algorithms to analyze cryptocurrency market data and autonomously execute trades on centralized exchanges or decentralized platforms. These bots typically operate continuously, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, requiring minimal human oversight. Their core function involves the analysis of extensive amounts of real-time and historical market data, including price fluctuations, trading volumes and order book information. There are numerous potential advantages to employing AI agent trading bots. Their continuous operation ensures that no trading opportunities are missed, as they can monitor markets around the clock, accommodating global market movements. Some platforms offering these bots also provide backtesting capabilities, enabling users to evaluate the potential effectiveness of different trading strategies using historical data before deploying them with real capital.Telegram DEX bots Telegram bots operate via Telegram, leveraging its accessibility and real-time communication to execute trades directly on DEXs. They often focus on speed and sniping new tokens, appealing to users in fast-moving ecosystems like Solana. The recently launched protocols also included additional features that are often available in CEX trading bots, such as grid trading, DCA and limit orders.Telegram bots such as Maestro and Unibot first appeared around 2020–2021. In 2022, many of these bots were already offering advanced features like copy trading and arbitrage.By the end of 2023, Solana-based bots like BONKBot and Trojan Bot gained prominence for their speed in trading memecoins on DEXs. The biggest advantage of Telegram bots is their ability to trade on mobile devices without the need for a web browser extension to connect to a wallet. It hugely improves the usability of mobile trading, monitoring and integration with social networks.The top five Telegram bots by historical trading volume across all blockchains are Trojan, BonkBot, Maestro, Banana Gun and Sol Trading Bot. The majority of the trading volumes in the past 90 days happened on Solana, where all of the top five Telegram bots operate.DEX trading bot wars. Source: Dune AnalyticsThe functionalities offered by the Telegram bots are very similar, with the exception that some of them (i.e., Maestro and Banana Gun) focus on multichain operations, whereas the rest focus on Solana.The main use case for Telegram bots is to automatically identify profitable entry and exit points and execute trades quickly; it’s very difficult to track the profits or losses made by individual users from each trade. Since some of the Telegram bots, such as Banana Gun and BonkBot, offer a revenue-sharing model tied to their own tokens in the form of purchasing back their tokens with the 1% fee they charge, the token price and revenue (fees received) are used as an approximation of the performance of Telegram bots.Daily revenue in USD among Telegram bots. Source: Dune DashboardDaily revenue out of total revenue. Source: Dune DashboardLooking at the total revenue in the past six months, Trojan has received the most nominal amount in fees (around $109 million), whereas Sol Trading Bot has the highest median daily revenue when normalizing the daily revenue in terms of the total revenue.They all saw a peak around January 2025 during the memecoin season but are now facing a low-revenue period due to the broader bearish market conditions.Daily token price percentage change. Source: Dune AnalyticsThe two Telegram bots that share revenue through their tokens are Banana Gun and BonkBot. Looking at the price evolution in the past six months, the performance of the remaining parts is very similar, except for the significant rise in BONK’s price in November 2024. They both experienced significant price drops during the recent bearish market conditions.Related: The whale, the hack and the psychological earthquake that hit HEXAI agent bots AI agent trading bots are sophisticated automated systems that leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) algorithms to analyze cryptocurrency market data and autonomously execute trades.The term “agent” suggests these bots possess a degree of independence and decision-making capability that extends beyond the fixed rules of traditional automated trading systems. The most well-known AI agent frameworks that exist today are Virtuals and ai16z.Virtuals Protocol, launched in October 2024 on the Ethereum layer-2 network Base, is an AI agent generator platform designed to simplify the creation and deployment of AI agents on the blockchain. While Virtuals is not solely focused on trading, the platform enables the development of AI agents that could potentially be designed for trading purposes. For instance, Aixbt, an experimental AI agent on the platform, tracks discussions on X to identify potential market insights, suggesting a strategy that could inform trading decisions.Since Virtuals Protocol focuses on a launchpad model where agents are tokenized individually (e.g., LUNA and AIXBT) and operate across different areas such as gaming, trading and entertainment, we’ll only look into the performance of AIXBT, the token of the trading agent with the largest market capitalization on Virtuals.AIXBT price history. Source: CoinMarketCapAi16z is an AI-powered trading fund operating on the Solana blockchain. Launched in October 2024, ai16z utilizes sophisticated AI agents, powered by the Eliza framework, to autonomously analyze market data, including price movements, social media sentiment and onchain analytics, and execute trades.The fund functions as an AI investment decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), allowing holders of its native token to participate in governance by voting on key decisions and influencing trading strategies through a “virtual marketplace of trust.” AI Marc, a virtual fund manager built using the Eliza framework, oversees the fund’s trading activities. AI16Z tokens represent ownership in the fund and grant governance rights, with the agent’s actions driving token value. AI16Z price history. Source: CoinMarketCapComparing the trading volumes from these two agents, they both reached a peak in January 2025, with AI16Z reaching $501 million and AIXBT reaching $682 million. AI16Z’s price hit its peak slightly earlier than its volume high, whereas for AIXBT, the price and volume peaks coincided around the same time.AI16Z and AIXBT price and volume comparison. Source: CoinMarketCapAIXBT’s price performance is more impressive than AI16Z. At the peak, the token price was almost 4,000x the initial price in November 2024, whereas for AI16Z, this was around 111x. Even after the recent downturn and the broader market trending down, the latest price record at the end of March 2025 is still 478x the initial price for AIXBT and 6.8x for AI16Z.DEX/CEX bots These platforms are web-based and operate outside Telegram. You can trade directly on DEXs through wallet connection or connect to a CEX via APIs or a simple login option as part of their integrated exchange solutions.These web-based platforms offer a wide range of strategies and broader market access; they cater to users preferring both CEX liquidity and reliability as well as DEX’s decentralized, non-custodial nature. Some of these platforms also offer a quick switch between DEX and CEX with one click, making the discovery of price discrepancies between CEX and DEX (or CEX-DEX arbitrage) much easier.The most common strategies available on these platforms are grid, DCA and signal bot. A DCA bot invests a fixed amount of money into a cryptocurrency at regular intervals — regardless of the asset’s price. The idea is to spread out your entry points over time, which helps reduce the impact of market volatility. This type of strategy tends to perform well during price-trending periods.A grid bot is built for active trading — buying low and selling high in a structured way to profit from price fluctuations. A grid bot places a series of buy and sell limit orders at preset intervals above and below a set price range. This creates a “grid” of orders, and the bot profits from each completed buy-low/sell-high cycle. Grid bot works best in sideways markets with high volatility.A signal bot executes trades based on external signals — these usually come from technical indicators, market analysis or third-party services. These signals can be relative strength index (RSI), exponential moving averages (EMA), Bollinger Bands, etc.The following table shows the historical performance for the token pairs BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT and SOL/USDT for the three trading strategies. The parameter selection for the grid bot utilizes the 3Commas AI optimization built-in functionality to select the best parameters, whereas for DCA, the most popular classic trading strategy from their users is selected. For the signal bot, Dash2Trade provides strategy presets where the top strategy for each token is selected. These strategies are backtested on a proprietary system used to trade on live markets but are only available for the 120 days before Jan. 26, 2025.Due to a lack of consistent availability of data on the platforms, three backtesting periods were used for each of the three strategies. The table below shows the simple price change during the corresponding period, which is also the return for the simple benchmark buy-and-hold strategy.The available data suggests that performance can vary widely based on the specific bot, the trading strategy employed and the prevailing market conditions at the time the backtests were run. BTC and ETH price. Source: CoinMarketCapDuring the 120-day period from Sept. 26, 2024, to Jan. 26, 2025, when the signal bots were backtested, the market prices for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) were all upward trending with a buy-and-hold return of 58%, 23% and 55%, respectively. The signal bots’ strategies were performing in line with the buy-and-hold strategy (in some cases slightly worse) for BTC (58.15%), ETH (16.79%) and SOL (48.68%). Comparing the same 120-day period but from Dec. 4, 2024, to April 4, 2025, when grid bots were backtested, the market prices for BTC, ETH and SOL were all experiencing a downward trend, with a buy-and-hold return of -16%, -53% and -49%, respectively, which is completely different from the previous 120-day backtesting period. The grid bots’ strategies were performing much better than the buy-and-hold strategy during the downward-trending, high-volatility market conditions, giving positive returns for BTC (9.6%), ETH (10.4%) and SOL (21.88%).BTC and SOL price. Source: CoinMarketCapFor the longest 180-day backtesting period from Oct. 4, 2024, to April 4, 2025, when the DCA bots were backtested, the buy-and-hold returns for BTC, ETH and SOL were 34%, -25% and -18%, respectively. The signal bots’ strategies were performing very differently for the three tokens compared to the buy-and-hold strategy. For BTC, a 17.75% return is generated from the DCA bots, which is worse than the buy-and-hold strategy. However, for ETH (58.12%) and SOL (80.92%), the DCA returns are much better than the buy-and-hold returns. This might be due to the fact that ETH and SOL experienced much higher volatility during the period compared to BTC, and the DCA strategy was able to spread out entry prices to reduce exposure to bad timing.Related: Market maker deals are quietly killing crypto projectsTrading bot performance comparisonTelegram DEX bots like Trojan and Sol Trading Bot dominated in revenue over the past six months, with Trojan earning about $109 million in fees. Sol Trading Bot stood out for consistent daily earnings relative to its size.However, all bots saw revenue peak during the January 2025 memecoin hype and have since slowed due to bearish market sentiment. Token-linked bots (BANANA, BONK) followed a similar pattern — brief surges (notably BONK in November 2024) followed by steep drops tied to broader market trends.AI agent bots showed explosive growth during the same period. AIXBT reached a peak price 4,000x its initial value, far outperforming AI16Z (111x). Even post-correction, AIXBT held strong at 478x vs. AI16Z’s 6.8x. Volume-wise, both peaked in January 2025, but AIXBT’s token price closely tracked its volume rise, suggesting strong speculative momentum.CEX/DEX signals, grid and DCA bots showed the importance of market conditions, and the performance results vary quite a lot compared to the buy-and-hold strategy.Signal bots performed close to the buy-and-hold strategy during the uptrend market condition (backtesting period September 2024–January 2025), with marginally lower or similar returns.Grid bots excelled during a downtrend and high volatility environment (backtesting period December 2024–April 2025), beating the buy-and-hold strategy by wide margins, flipping negative market returns into double-digit gains.DCA bots over a 180-day backtesting period (October 2024–April 2025) had mixed results; they underperformed the buy-and-hold strategy for BTC but dramatically outperformed ETH and SOL, most likely due to their ability to absorb and capitalize on volatility.Key takeawaysWe have dived into the wild world of AI-powered crypto trading bots, pitting Telegram DEX bots, AI agent bots and CEX/DEX bots against each other — each a unique tool tailored to different traders and market conditions.Telegram DEX bots are designed for ease of use, with a simple interface embedded in the Telegram app. These bots focus on trading memecoins or participating in token launches onchain. They appeal to mobile-savvy traders and memecoin enthusiasts who prioritize quick trades and social integration, with features such as copy trade and revenue-sharing through tokens.Telegram DEX bots generated significant revenue in the past six months, peaking in January 2025’s memecoin season. But not all of them share revenue with the users. The only two who did (BANANA, BONK) faltered in the recent bearish market, with token prices dropping sharply. AI agent bots use natural language interfaces and AI decision-making to lower the barrier to entry for users interested in governance (e.g., AI16Z’s DAO model) or sentiment-driven strategies (e.g., AIXBT’s X analysis). Their primary strength lies in abstracting complex trading strategies through conversational interfaces.Although AI agent bots’ token price exhibited explosive growth, the recent market downtrend has led to less trading activity and lower token prices. AI agent bots stand out as a more experimental category. They remain under development and are best suited for users who are tech-curious or seeking a hybrid between simplicity and automation.Bots operating on DEXs or CEXs directly offer web-based platforms with diverse strategies, suiting more experienced traders who need high-speed execution, multi-exchange access, deep liquidity and complex configurability. The backtesting results show signal bots give similar returns to the bullish buy-and-hold strategy, whereas grid bots thrive in volatile downturn markets, and DCA bots outperform the buy-and-hold strategy for more volatile assets.Magazine: Your AI ‘digital twin’ can take meetings and comfort your loved ones
Crypto firms moving into Wall Street territory amid ‘growing synergy’
Cryptocurrency firms and exchanges are increasingly moving into Wall Street territory, launching more traditional investment offerings and showcasing the increasing connection between crypto and traditional finance (TradFi).“There’s a growing synergy between traditional financial investments and the emerging crypto space,” according to Gracy Chen, the CEO of Bitget, the world’s sixth-largest crypto exchange.“Crypto players are now checking out traditional finance as they see the opportunity to bridge it,” Chen told Cointelegraph.“The lines are blurring — investors want flexibility, and products that can straddle both worlds are naturally attractive,” Chen said. “Some players see TradFi as a safety net; others, like Bitget, see it as a launchpad for broader adoption.” She added:“In a volatile market, integration is smarter than isolation.”Related: Trump’s tariff escalation exposes ‘deeper fractures’ in global financial systemChen’s comments come a week after crypto exchange Kraken launched access to 11,000 US-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as the first part of a global expansion into TradFi offerings, Cointelegraph reported on April 14.Kraken’s expansion into traditional stock offerings was announced a week after the S&P 500’s record-breaking two-day loss of over $5 trillion, triggered by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal import tariffs announcement on April 2.Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong echoed a similar vision. During the company’s latest earnings call, Armstrong said Coinbase aims to help modernize the global financial system and bring more of the world’s GDP onto crypto rails.“We think that’s a more efficient, fair, free world that will accelerate progress, and it creates economic freedom,” he said during Coinbase’s latest earnings call.Related: 70% chance of crypto bottoming before June amid trade fears: NansenCrypto and TradFi relationship is “inherently symbiotic” The relationship between “digital assets and more traditional assets is inherently symbiotic,” a spokesperson for Coinbase, the world’s third-largest crypto exchange, told Cointelegraph, adding:“Core to our mission to enable economic freedom by onboarding one billion users to crypto, is supporting more of ‘traditional finance’ to be integrated with crypto.”“As regulatory clarity and institutional adoption increase globally, we expect more of the global GDP to be running on crypto rails,” the spokesperson added.Related: Bitcoin rally above $100K may follow US Treasury buybacks — Arthur HayesBlockchain technology brings “speed and transparency” while TradFi introduces “trust, scale and compliance,” in an “inevitable convergence,” Omri Hanover, general manager at Gems Trade cryptocurrency platform, told Cointelegraph.“Together, TradFi and crypto unlock new pathways for both retail and institutional investors, especially those seeking exposure to digital assets without navigating the full complexity of native crypto products,” he explained.Traditional investment platforms such as eToro and Robinhood have also launched cryptocurrency offerings.Magazine: Altcoin season to hit in Q2? Mantra’s plan to win trust: Hodler’s Digest, April 13 – 19
Mixed sentiment as crypto funds see modest $6M inflows — CoinShares
Cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) showed signs of recovery last week with minor inflows, after shedding more than $1 billion in outflows in the previous two weeks.Crypto investment products saw inflows of $6 million during the week of April 14–18, reflecting mixed investor sentiment, CoinShares reported on April 22.“While the week began with minor inflows, stronger-than-expected US retail sales figures mid-week likely triggered outflows of $146 million,” CoinShares’ head of research James Butterfill wrote.Weekly crypto ETP flows since late 2024. Source: CoinSharesTotal assets under management (AUM) in crypto ETPs edged up 1.4% from $129 billion as of April 11 to $131 billion on April 18.All US Bitcoin ETFs are red in April so farAccording to the report, BlackRock’s iShares exchange-traded funds saw the biggest inflows last week at $182 million, while major issuers like Fidelity saw $123 million of outflows from the issuer’s crypto ETPs.Bitwise was among a few of the US issuers that saw inflows in its crypto ETPs, totaling $24 million, while the European issuer 21Shares saw bigger inflows at $37 million.Flows by issuer (in millions of US dollars). Source: CoinSharesEven with minor inflows, all US crypto ETP issuers are currently in the red month-to-date. European-based 21Shares was the only issuer that had maintained $28 million of inflows in April.Related: BlackRock reports $3B in digital asset inflows during Q1Year-to-date, BlackRock’s iShares ETFs are solid with more than $3 billion of inflows, with the majority of issuers being in red, except for Proshares with $340 million of inflows and Cathie Wood’s ARK with $19 million YTD.XRP stood out with $37.7 million inflowsAsset-wise, Ether (ETH) saw the largest ETP outflows among other cryptocurrencies last week, totaling $26.7 million.XRP (XRP) saw significant inflows of $37.7 million, standing out as the biggest gainer among other crypto ETPs.Flows by asset (in millions of US dollars). Source: CoinSharesBitcoin saw minor outflows of $6 million, extending April outflows to $894 million. The asset still has $541 million of ETP inflows YTD, the biggest inflows before Ether and XRP, totaling $215 million and $214 million YTD, respectively.Magazine: Altcoin season to hit in Q2? Mantra’s plan to win trust: Hodler’s Digest, April 13 – 19
Gold is money, says Peter Schiff, as price hits $3,500 ATH
As gold reached new highs above $3,500, Peter Schiff — a prominent gold advocate and Bitcoin critic — argued that the precious metal is money, fueling backlash from the crypto community.“Gold is not just any commodity, it’s money,” Schiff wrote in an X post on April 22 after gold prices briefly broke above $3,500.While praising gold, Schiff sounded the alarm about the state of the economy, emphasizing that gold’s abnormal rally in the past few weeks holds negative implications for the US dollar.Source: Peter Schiff“This is the end of the US dollar’s dominance. Life in America is about to change in ways few can imagine,” he stated.Gold is up 31% YTD, USD is down 9%Schiff’s comments came amid gold futures surging to a record-breaking $3,500 on April 22, while spot gold has yet to touch the milestone after reaching $3,498 on Tuesday, according to TradingView.Since the beginning of 2025, spot gold has gained as much as 31.6% of value, while its one-year price is up more than 44%.Spot gold (XAU) price chart since Jan. 1, 2025. Source: TradingViewThe US dollar has seen a notable decline year-to-date, with the US Dollar Index (DXY) tumbling more than 9% in 2025, based on TradingView data.Community questions gold as “money”Schiff’s observations on the state of the US dollar in the context of gold’s rally have received some traction on social media, but many commentators have questioned whether the term “money” corresponds to gold.Some crypto community members specifically highlighted that gold fails to serve as a viable payment method, one of the four foundational functions of money.“I shaved a bit off my gold bar at Starbucks this morning. They accepted it as payment. First time in a while,” cryptocurrency advocate Mike Alfred responded in Schiff’s X thread, referring to gold being rarely used as a method of payment.Related: Jack Dorsey pushes Signal to adopt Bitcoin paymentsUnlike gold, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) are able to serve the payment use case, many posters stressed.“I paid for my haircut last week in Bitcoin,” one commentator said, adding:“Merchants won’t accept gold because how do they test if it’s real?”Amid the ongoing gold rally, the narrative of gold versus “digital gold” Bitcoin has been on the rise. According to Cathie Wood, a major Bitcoin bull and ARK Invest founder, Bitcoin is a “much bigger idea than gold,” and has a potential to gain from gold’s $23 trillion market.Others believe that gold and Bitcoin should not be seen as competitors because the assets are different in their nature and have different missions.Magazine: Altcoin season to hit in Q2? Mantra’s plan to win trust: Hodler’s Digest, April 13 – 19