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Cryptocurrency firms and centralized exchanges are launching more traditional investment offerings, bridging the divide between traditional financial and digital assets.
With investors seeking more flexible product offerings under one platform, the “line is blurring” between traditional finance (TradFi) and the cryptocurrency space, as the two financial paradigms signal a “growing synergy,” according to Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, the world’s sixth-largest crypto exchange.
In the wider crypto space, Securitize partnered with Mantle protocol to launch an institutional fund that will generate yield on a basket of diverse cryptocurrencies, similar to how traditional index funds track a mix of stocks.
The developments come after crypto investor sentiment staged a significant recovery, moving from “fear” to “neutral” for the first time since January 2025.
Investor sentiment was bolstered after US President Donald Trump said that import tariffs on Chinese goods will “come down substantially,” adopting a softer tone in negotiations for the first time since the reciprocal tariff announcement.
Crypto firms moving into Wall Street territory
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.”
Securitize, Mantle launch institutional crypto fund
Tokenization platform Securitize partnered with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Mantle to launch an institutional fund designed to earn yield on a diverse basket of cryptocurrencies, the companies said.
Similar to how a traditional index fund tracks a mix of stocks, the Mantle Index Four (MI4) Fund aims to offer investors exposure to cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Solana (SOL), as well as stablecoins tracking the US dollar, Securitize said in an April 24 announcement.
The fund also integrates liquid staking tokens — including Mantle’s mETH, Bybit’s bbSOL, and Ethena’s USDe — in a bid to enhance returns with onchain yield, according to the announcement.
The launch comes as retail and institutions alike increase exposure to cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, as a hedge amid escalating macroeconomic uncertainty.
Mantra says CEO has begun the process of burning his 150 million OM tokens
Mantra founder and CEO John Patrick Mullin has started unstaking 150 million of his Mantra (OM) tokens in preparation for sending them to a burn address in an attempt to restore the token’s value by tightening supply.
Mantra announced on April 21 that the unstaking process had begun, and would be completed by April 29, at which point Mullin's Mantra (OM) tokens will be sent to the burn address and permanently removed from circulating supply.
Mullin said it was a “first step in rebuilding trust with the community, but far from the last.”
Mantra said it was also in talks with “key ecosystem partners” about burning a further 150 million OM to bring the total burn amount to 300 million.
With 150 million fewer OM, Mantra’s total supply will decline to 1.67 billion, and its number of staked tokens will drop by over 26% to 421.8 million OM from 571.8 million OM.
Symbiotic raises $29 million for staking-based universal coordination layer
Cryptocurrency staking protocol Symbiotic closed a $29 million Series A funding round led by Web3-focused investment firms, including Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures, to support the launch of a new economic coordination layer for blockchain security.
The round included more than 100 angel investors, with participation by major industry players Aave, Polygon and StarkWare, the company said in an April 23 announcement shared with Cointelegraph.
The closing of the funding round also marks the launch of Symbiotic’s Universal Staking Framework, which aims to be an economic coordination layer that bolsters blockchain security via staking.
The new staking layer enables the use of any combination of cryptocurrencies to secure networks, including monolithic and modular layer-1 and layer-2 blockchains, the announcement said.
“We’ve created a modular framework that lets protocols evolve security models over time while efficiently coordinating risk,” Misha Putiatin, co-founder of Symbiotic, told Cointelegraph. “This empowers protocols at every stage of their lifecycle to evolve their security models seamlessly without rebuilding infrastructure.”
SEC delays decision on Polkadot ETF
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) delayed a decision on whether to approve a proposed exchange-traded fund (ETF) holding Polkadot’s native token, regulatory filings show.
According to an April 24 filing, the regulator has extended its deadline for a final ruling until June 11, nearly four months after the Nasdaq sought permission to list Grayscale Polkadot Trust on Feb. 24.
Grayscale’s ETF filing adds to a roster of about 70 proposed ETFs awaiting SEC approval, including funds holding altcoins, memecoins and crypto-related financial derivatives, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
Asset managers are pitching ETFs for “[e]verything from XRP, Litecoin and Solana to Penguins, Doge and 2x Melania and everything in between,” Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas said in an April 21 post on the X platform. Asset manager 21Shares is also awaiting permission to list its own Polkadot ETF.
DeFi market overview
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the green.
The Official Trump (TRUMP) token rose over 73% as the week’s biggest gainer, after the president announced an exclusive in-person dinner for the top tokenholders. The Sui (SUI) token rose over 69% as the week’s second-best performing token.
Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.
Recent months have seen the ebb and flow of a certain pattern: US President Donald Trump will take some objectively harmful action to the US economy, and the markets will crash. Seeing this, Trump turns to Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, and demands he lower the Fed Funds Rate — the rate at which the Fed lends money to banks. And the steely-eyed Powell will say, “No.”
Trump wants to lower rates because doing so is an effective cash injection into the United States economy, stimulating activity and lifting the market. This, he believes, will make him appear successful. Powell wants to follow rigorous economic standards to set rates to carefully balance the Fed’s dual mandates of maximizing employment and maintaining stable prices.
He also wants to maintain the Fed’s independence from political pressure and, crucially, maintain the Fed’s appearance of independence from political pressure. If the markets believe that the central bank’s independence has failed in the US, it may become more difficult to sell US Treasury Bills, the United States’ sovereign debt. That is a problem in the fundamental sense that the US will have to pay more to borrow money, making it poorer — but it is an especially acute problem now because the US already has an enormous, $30-trillion pile of debt, which it has to periodically refinance.
If it is forced to refinance at higher rates because markets do not trust the US government anymore, then an ever greater percentage of GDP will be absorbed by the cost of interest, and, as the kids say, the United States will be cooked.
That dance takes us to now. Last week, Trump repeatedly intimated that he would like to fire Powell, and the market didn’t like it. On Monday, Trump provoked a crash by calling Powell “a major loser” on Truth Social. In response, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has reportedly voiced concerns with the risks of firing Powell to Trump, who seems, for now, to have acquiesced, stating Tuesday that he would not fire his Fed chair.
Still, this process feels more like a spiral than anything else, and many market watchers are waiting for the next shoe to drop. That forces the question: If Trump does go through with his base instincts and axes Powell, what will be the result? In particular, what effect will this have on the cryptocurrency industry?
Cracking the Fed
It bears mentioning that the president is not supposed to be able to fire the Fed chair at will. Section 10 of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 states that “each member shall hold office for a term of fourteen years from the expiration of the term of his predecessor, unless sooner removed for cause by the President.”
This language may appear ambiguous, but in the 1935 case Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not give the president an “illimitable power of removal” and so the president’s removal power is limited by statutory language.
This decision ratified the concept of “independent agencies,” which reside within the executive branch, but have independent authority. While a number of agencies have this characteristic, including the SEC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, the Fed is the most important.
Related: US gov’t actions give clue about upcoming crypto regulation
Economists do not think much about the political control of central banks. Politicians have relatively short-term incentives, thinking in years or election cycles. This inherently pushes them to prefer short-termist policies, of which hot cash injections are the purest form. However, fiscal and monetary policy are delicate arts that often animate painful policy choices.
In a classic example, Richard Nixon pressured then-Fed Chair Arthur Burns to pursue expansionary monetary policy in the lead up to the 1972 election, believing that it would help his reelection odds. Nixon won that election in a landslide, but soon followed catastrophic “stagflation” that crippled the US economy for a decade and indeed may still be felt in the industries that hollowed out during that period.
Contrast this with the policies of Paul Volcker, who, after this devastating period of stagflation, implemented a vicious series of rate increases between 1979 and 1987, which caused the “Volcker Shocks,” a series of painful recessions. However, the effect of this policy was to eventually strangle inflation and herald in the boom times of the 90s, facilitating Bill Clinton’s remarkable fiscal policy.
No politician could have made these choices, none will in the future, and that is the rub. Economists — and, crucially, markets — believe deeply that the Fed must remain independent or else the entire economic fabric of American society risks collapse. This is no hyperbole — nations with politically controlled central banks like Weimar Germany, Peronist Argentina and Venezuela have experienced such crippling hyperinflation that it led variously to multigenerational geopolitical backsliding, reports of citizens starving and eating rats and the rise of Adolph Hitler. This is serious stuff.
To fire Powell, Trump will first have to defeat the Humphrey’s Executor precedent, a prospect that many legal scholars believe likely in light of the current Supreme Court composition. This is a Rubicon which, once crossed, marks a point of no return. Not just Trump, but every president who follows will have plenary legal authority to direct all executive officers — Fed chair included — at their will. Most believe this will lead to ruin.
But disaster or no, it will be a test for cryptocurrency. The original Bitcoin white paper aimed to disintermediate financial transactions from “financial institutions serving as trusted third parties.” If the Fed falls, and US monetary policy is unmoored from sound judgment, the thesis of cryptocurrency’s early years will be put in stark relief.
As Trump has provoked capital flight in recent weeks, investors have sought safety in various assets. Traditionally, any time there was a crisis, sophisticated parties fled risk assets into US Treasurys. The thinking was that these were riskless assets. Well, those days may be done. Ten-year bond yields approached 5% during the peak of the tariff crisis and have not yet fully returned to previous lows. If Trump breaks the Fed, these outflows will be a drop in a bucket in a river, and that money may move into cryptocurrencies.
Historically, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) has tightly tracked the Nasdaq (albeit with a multiplier). However, since the tariff crisis, while US securities prices have remained largely depressed, Bitcoin has miraculously begun to pump. This has led some to speculate that we are witnessing the long-prophesied “decoupling,” wherein crypto-assets will fulfill their original purpose and move independently from centralized assets.
It is impossible to say if this will or will not happen, but if Trump gives Powell the boot, we will find out for sure.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire
Of course, world-historical collapse can’t be all good for crypto, and there will be significant pain across a variety of surfaces from this crisis as well. In the first instance, stablecoins will feel dire consequences almost immediately.
In the last decade, two US dollar-denominated stablecoins — USDC (USDC) and Tether’s USDt (USDT) — have dominated the market. Their issuers, Circle and Tether, are both important systemic institutions and major buyers of US Treasurys, which collateralize the majority of their stablecoin obligations.
An immediate result of a Fed crisis could be a Treasury default. The economist Noah Smith has speculated that Trump might try to write down the US’s sovereign debt:
“I suspect Trump will do something more like what he used to do as a businessman when his debt went bad — look for a cheap bailout, and if one doesn’t emerge, declare bankruptcy.”
Indeed, the president has hinted darkly at this prospect himself, in February suggesting that they might rely on pretense to mark the bills down:
“There could be a problem - you’ve been reading about that, with Treasuries and that could be an interesting problem. […] It could be that a lot of those things don’t count. In other words, that some of that stuff that we’re finding is very fraudulent, therefore maybe we have less debt than we thought.”
Related: Atkins becomes next SEC chair: What’s next for the crypto industry
A sovereign default would immediately affect Circle and Tether by marking down the value of their collateral. This, in turn, could leave the stablecoins undercollateralized, which might provoke a bank run. The markets may ultimately stabilize, but events could easily turn the other way, leading to the collapse of major stablecoins.
This would have numerous second-order effects, as smart contracts holding stables as collateral would begin liquidating positions, with contagion sweeping the rest of the market.
Interestingly, these mechanical consequences may be less dire than the political costs of a Fed crisis because treasuries are not the only asset that has systemic importance to crypto. The US dollar has been the world’s reserve currency for many, many years. There are lots of good reasons for this: It is relatively strong and stable, so it is good to settle trade with. But if the government backing it ceases to be strong and stable, this paradigm will likely shift.
And as more trade is executed in euro- or yuan-denominated accounts, regulators in the EU and China will have much more control of the flows of fiat currency through cryptocurrency. One prominent cryptocurrency attorney, who chose not to be named for fear of political reprisal, speculated exactly this:
“I think China will fill a lot of the void, and EU will fill most of the rest. Neither would be good for crypto generally between CCP and EU over-regulating in different ways for different goals. This seems bad.”
This might prompt flight to uncollateralized crypto-primitive assets, but there is essentially no precedent for such assets being used at scale for real-world transactions. It is just as likely that a stablecoin crisis could simply kneecap the industry for years as it is catching its stride.
Ultimately, nobody knows whether Trump will fire Powell, or even if he can. Nobody knows what consequences might flow downstream from his decisions. But if a butterfly flapping its wings in Argentina can cause a tornado in Prague, then Donald Trump muttering incantations in the West Wing might vindicate or destabilize the blockchain forever.
Like it or not, we’re all along for the ride.
Magazine: UK’s Orwellian AI murder prediction system, will AI take your job? AI Eye
A high court in Nigeria has reportedly granted the country’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) the authority to arrest six individuals who were allegedly involved in investment fraud at a cryptocurrency exchange.
According to an April 24 report from Nigerian news outlet The Cable, the Federal High Court in Abuja approved the arrest and detention of six people who promoted the Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX), allegedly defrauding investors out of 1 billion naira, or roughly $620,000. The suspects in the cases did not appear to have been arrested at the time of publication.
“[The defendants used] their company ST Technologies International Limited, promoted another company Crypto Bridge Exchange by making adverts, and lured unsuspecting members of the public to invest cryptocurrencies on the CBEX investment platform,” the EFCC reportedly said in its motion for the arrest.
The legal case marked another instance of Nigeria cracking down on representatives of crypto exchanges in the country. In February 2024, Nigerian authorities detained and arrested two Binance executives who were visiting to discuss the exchange’s activities.
Related: Nigeria still open to crypto business despite rocky past: Report
In April, many CBEX users began reporting that they could not withdraw their funds from the exchange, resulting in online outrage that led to real-world violence. A group of investors stormed CBEX’s local office in Ibadan, looting items like the air conditioning unit in an apparent attempt to recuperate some of their losses.
The case against Binance is still on
The Nigerian case against Binance, in which a US citizen, Tigran Gambaryan, was detained and whose health reportedly deteriorated as he waited in prison, drew criticism from many in the crypto industry and US lawmakers. He was held for eight months on tax and money laundering charges before being released to US custody.
Nigeria’s tax evasion case against Binance continues to move forward after Gambaryan’s release, though the exchange has no office in the country. Cointelegraph reached out to a representative from Nigeria’s Ministry of Information for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again
Opinion by: Daniel Ahmed, co-founder of Fasset and founding member of the Own Foundation
Crypto was born from a vision to decentralize power, democratize finance and build systems where equity prevails over exploitation. Somewhere along the way, however, the movement lost its moral compass. As speculation surged, purpose dwindled.
We must return crypto to its decentralized roots, a technological revolution built on long-term value, inclusivity and ethics rather than cyclical, speculative gains. The industry should take inspiration from emerging regions and how ethical financial investing can help to repair some of the ways our industry has often fallen short.
The rise of layer 2
When Vitalik wrote a blog post on layer 2s as a cultural extension of Ethereum, he brought up a critical point not only in business and technology but humanity — what we build in this life should be more significant than ourselves. Citing blockchains, he described how layer 2s, which he framed as subcultures of Ethereum, don’t merely differ in their technical benefits but how their positioning and intricacies trickle down into the culture of their communities.
In a space where new layer 2s are emerging rapidly, Vitalik’s insights are accurate and inspiring. When we build in a vacuum of echo chambers and monocultures, we miss out on the actual value of community in Web3.
What really brings communities together? Too often in crypto, that answer has been making people rich. What it should be is shared ideals that solve real issues. If done with purpose and conviction, this can still make people money.
While the rapid rise of layer 2 and layer 3 solutions promises scalability and efficiency, they are too often motivated by speculative gains rather than lasting value creation. If there’s any doubt, the numbers speak for themselves.
Layer-2 fatigue aside, the sheer scope of this data raises the question: Is our industry innovating just because it can, or is it creating a real-world utility that improves the lives of fellow humans? There’s nothing wrong with building something to make money, but if that’s the only reason we’re building something, that’s a problem.
Recent: Islamic finance and Web3 take stage at Istanbul Blockchain Week
We need to shift the narrative and look at how Web3 is solving actual, fundamental issues in emerging markets — particularly in regions like the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Africa — as a north star for how to ethically build the future of our space.
What does innovation indeed mean?
If crypto projects think innovation in Web3 is only about VC-led fundraising rounds, comparing transactions per second, or building the next great decentralized application to trade cat coins, they have probably never existed in a place where even the simplest of financial transactions is cumbersome.
In emerging markets, where people grapple with inflation, high remittance fees and limited access to financial services, we’ve witnessed how meaningful effects can transform the daily lives of millions. These are not abstract issues. They affect business owners, families, students, creators and more.
From stablecoins to secure and user-friendly payment applications, Web3 offers a unique opportunity to address these problems by creating decentralized financial systems that bypass the inefficiencies and inequities of traditional banking. For Web3 to truly make a difference in these regions, it must be designed with a focus on ethics, accessibility and long-term utility. We must lead by example.
In these markets, if innovation doesn’t create a meaningful disruption that improves people’s lives and addresses real-world problems, it’s nothing more than a buzzword. The most powerful solutions in technology are those that solve the world’s greatest problems.
Ethical finance — Web3’s future?
If you want inspiration, pay attention to those doing something different. If you want to inspire others, lead by example.
Ethical finance, particularly Islamic finance, offers valuable lessons for Web3. Dating back to the 1960s and 70s in the Middle East and North Africa (and even further to around 620 AD), this sector is built on risk-sharing, ethical investment and a focus on tangible assets.
Islamic finance has endured for centuries because it rejects speculation in favor of real, meaningful value. For example, we’ve seen the rise of ethical finance institutions like Al Rajhi Bank, one of the most prominent Islamic banks globally, known for its investments in tangible assets and community-oriented financial products.
This model, which strives to build based on morals, substance and necessity versus mere financial opportunity, can guide Web3 as it moves beyond hype-driven growth.
Build by example
As we look toward the next few years with the wind and a bull market beneath our wings, the time has come for Web3 to take a hard look in the mirror and redefine what success and innovation genuinely look like. The answer to this won’t be the same for everyone — that would be pretty boring if it were.
We must find a common ground of shared values that extends beyond technical achievements, market capitalization, total value locked or X followers but strives to innovate something more significant than any layer 2 or token.
When gearing up to launch something new, our industry must ask itself something that lives at the heart of Islamic finance: How will this product improve people’s lives? Is it true to the ethos of creating decentralized systems that are transparent, fair and built for the benefit of all?
If we can’t answer that, perhaps we should step back and ask why. Then, get back to work.
Opinion by: Daniel Ahmed, co-founder of Fasset and founding member of the Own Foundation.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
What is a Bitcoin flash crash?
A Bitcoin flash crash is a sudden, sharp plunge in the market price of BTC that only lasts a short period of time before prices start to normalize.
The appearance of unique market conditions causes a jolt in the leading cryptocurrency’s market price. Typically, the reason behind a flash crash is a large group of sellers (called whales) deciding to sell Bitcoin (BTC) suddenly and flood the market with supply. This overwhelms buyers and can erase billions from the market in minutes.
The fact that BTC flash crashes have still occurred in recent years highlights the continued crypto volatility risks, even with a robust crypto asset like BTC. Despite crypto’s multitrillion-dollar market status, it is still maturing.
Particularly for newer investors in the space, it is critical to understand BTC price crashes and why they happen. Without this knowledge, watching an event like this unfold can be devastating and lead to badly judged emotional trading decisions rather than insightful, profitable investing.
Did you know? Traditional stock markets have built-in circuit breakers where trading is temporarily halted when an asset or index moves a certain amount. BTC markets do not have these circuit breakers, so it’s hard to control rapid market declines.
How does a Bitcoin flash crash occur?
The speed and severity of a flash crash can often be hard to understand. For the average investor, it sparks terror and perhaps confirms their deepest fears of their crypto stash becoming worthless. But with a calm head, the “tripwire” for a BTC crash is usually tied to a certain combination of interconnected factors.
Let’s take a look at how flash crashes happen:
- Liquidation of leveraged positions when markets move unexpectedly. If leveraged traders can’t maintain their collateral during a big market drop, exchanges automatically sell their position to pay off the loan. When this happens on a large scale, it sends a wave of selling pressure through the market, crashing prices along the way.
- Algorithmic trading errors can cause a cascade of sell orders. Many traders use computer programs with preset rules. When these systems react to unusual market conditions, the trading bots can start selling aggressively. This then has a knock-on effect, sending sell signals and causing a chain reaction of automatic selling.
- Low market liquidity makes prices more sensitive to large trades. Think of this as far more active sellers than buyers. For BTC, it’s more prevalent on smaller exchanges where someone wants to sell a large amount quickly. They exhaust the available buy order immediately and cause a sudden BTC drop.
- Technical glitches in exchange infrastructure can cause trading to break down. It could be from servers going offline, data feeds freezing or order matching failing. This can lead to incorrect pricing displays and orders executing at extreme prices.
- Panic selling regularly occurs during scary news events. As the old trader’s saying goes, “Buy the rumor, sell the news.” When bad news breaks, markets could panic and everyone sells simultaneously, overwhelming buyers and sending prices plummeting.
Did you know? In December 2024, BTC finally breached the elusive $100,000 mark but then tumbled back down to $94,000 within hours. In the process, over 200,000 traders were liquidated, causing losses of over $1 billion.
Benefits of a Bitcoin flash crash
The unfurling of a crypto market crash sends an icy stab through most investors’ bodies; of course, they are highly unfavorable market conditions in most scenarios. But once you’ve gotten over the initial shock, there can be some hidden benefits to explore.
- Exceptional buying conditions: While destructive for panicked investors, for those who are prepared, it offers a golden buying opportunity to buy BTC at a substantially discounted price.
- Market stress test: Assuming there is a quick recovery, these types of events serve as a stress test to get valuable insight into how markets react under extreme circumstances.
- Improved industry practices: It provides a learning opportunity for platforms like crypto exchanges to understand what went wrong and improve their infrastructure to avoid incidents in the future.
- Increased investor protection: Flash crashes attract the attention of mainstream media and regulators. This focus can be a catalyst for better regulation and protection for retail investors.
Did you know? Despite its reputation for crashes and volatility, BTC now shows signs of becoming a mature asset. It can be less volatile than many well-known securities, such as the “Magnificent 7,” which includes Nvidia, Meta, Tesla and others.
Examples of Bitcoin flash crashes
There have been several BTC flash crashes since the cryptocurrency was launched in 2009. Some of the biggest exchanges have seen prices evaporate in minutes, and market-wide crashes have left investors grappling with wiped-out portfolios.
On June 19, 2011, the infamous Mt. Gox exchange was exposed to a database hack and compromised accounts. BTC’s price was pulverized from $17 down to $0.01, almost valueless. It was an early setback for Mt. Gox and BTC’s reputation, but it exposed early exchange vulnerability and showed the need for more robust infrastructure.
More recently, on March 18, 2024, BTC flash crashed on BitMEX. While other exchanges were trading at over $60,000, the price on BitMEX crumbled down to $8,900. It all happened in just two minutes, but the recovery was swift, with prices rebounding to normal levels within 10 minutes.
In addition, BTC-EUR prices on Coinbase briefly crashed from €63K to €48K, sharply diverging from other markets, as reported by Kaiko Research.
CryptoQuant’s head of research, Julio Moreno, commented on the flash crash that saw Bitcoin briefly drop to around $88,800 on December 5, 2024. According to him, the flash crash was driven by a sell-off cascade and deleveraging in the BTC futures market, with open interest dropping as leveraged long positions were liquidated.
COVID-19 was also responsible for a market-wide crash in March 2020 when the world’s most widely held crypto slid 50% in two days. The price collapsed from over $9,000 to below $4,000. It then took two months for market prices to return to previous levels.
How to protect against a Bitcoin flash crash in the future
Flash crashes are almost impossible to accurately predict. When they strike, things happen quickly. Usually, the damage is done before a human can react, particularly when positions are liquidated and trading bots react to sell signals. But it is still possible to prepare and protect yourself against the fallout.
- Set up price alerts at key technical levels: This will help to alert you to unnatural market conditions so you are not caught off guard.
- Use leverage lightly; flash crashes burn highly leveraged traders instantly. So, don’t overexpose yourself to highly leveraged market positions.
- Learn to use a stop loss to protect capital. This enables you to sell your position early on in a crash, although they’re not foolproof, as a flash crash can fly past a stop loss in the worst cases.
- Keep spare capital in reserve to give you the ability to capitalize on low market prices when they arrive.
- Don’t keep the bulk of your holdings in an exchange account. Crashes can put platforms under severe financial stress, so try to self-custody your assets.
As learned, flash crashes happen fast and can wipe out positions in seconds, especially for leveraged traders. Keeping a diversified portfolio, setting stop-loss orders and only investing what you can afford to lose are simple but effective ways to reduce risk during sudden market drops.
Key points:
Bitcoin is witnessing a tussle between buy and sell volume as BTC/USD hits its highest levels since the start of March.
BTC price action is making traders increasingly wary due to the pace of recent gains.
$100,000 is likely to remain out of reach for the short term, multiple commentators say.
Bitcoin (BTC) headed into key resistance after the April 25 Wall Street open as doubts over the BTC price breakout persisted.
Bitcoin sellers and buyers battle for control
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting new seven-week highs above $95,000.
Having preserved its yearly open at $93,500 as intraday support, Bitcoin went on to liquidate leveraged shorts as $100,000 came closer.
The latest data from monitoring resource CoinGlass shows progress in taking upside liquidity across exchange order books.
Reacting, popular trader Daan Crypto Trades underscored the importance of the current price range in the context of the Bitcoin bull market.
“Trading back above the Bull Market Support band as we speak,” he wrote in an X post, referring to a cluster of moving averages lost as support earlier in 2025.
“A weekly close above this level would be a good look for the larger timeframe and I'd expect new highs at some point as long as it holds above.”
Others were cautious, with fellow trader Skew revealing a tug-of-war between a large-volume buyer and seller.
“Price would be a lot lower than it is now without the passive buyer matching this market selling,” he warned alongside an order book print.
“Eventually one will throw in the towel & volatility will follow through.”
Waiting on a $100,000 BTC price “catalyst”
Continuing, Keith Alan, cofounder of trading resource Material Indicators, likewise doubted whether BTC/USD could sustain a trip above $95,000.
Related: Bitcoin exchange outflows mimic 2023 as whales buy retail 'panic'
Alan noted declining volume as price moved higher, repeated wicks below the yearly open and a “down” signal on one of Material Indicators’ proprietary trading tools.
“For me, a pump above $95k would invalidate the new signal, but I'd probably consider such a move to be a short squeeze unless we have a catalyst with some substance behind it,” he summarized.
Macroeconomic perspectives also favored a period of consolidation before BTC/USD returned to six figures.
In its latest bulletin to Telegram channel subscribers, trading firm QCP Capital argued that Bitcoin lacked a $100,000 “catalyst.”
“Given the pace of the recent rally, we remain tactically cautious,” it wrote.
“Positioning has become more crowded, which could lead to sharper reactions around key levels. Market participants appear to be watching closely for signs of continuation or exhaustion.”
This 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.
An official of the Swiss National Bank dismissed calls for the institution to add Bitcoin to its reserves as a hedge against the ongoing macroeconomic turmoil.
According to an April 25 Reuters report, Swiss National Bank Chairman Martin Schlegel said that “cryptocurrency cannot currently fulfil the requirements for our currency reserves” during a shareholder meeting in Bern earlier today. The comments come amid mounting pressure from the local crypto industry to add Bitcoin (BTC) to the central bank’s reserves.
Campaigner Luzius Meisser, a board member of cryptocurrency broker Bitcoin Suisse, told Reuters that “holding bitcoin makes more sense as the world shifts towards a multipolar order.” He claimed that the need is even more dire now that “the dollar and the euro are weakening.”
This is not the first time Schlegel has pushed back against the idea. Reports from early March quoted Schlegel saying that he doesn’t want to make Bitcoin a reserve asset in Switzerland, citing a lack of stability, liquidity concerns and security risks.
Related: Swiss canton of Bern votes to study Bitcoin mining feasibility
Switzerland’s campaign for a Bitcoin reserve
On the last day of 2024, the Swiss Federal Chancellery initiated a proposal to constitutionally mandate the Swiss National Bank to hold Bitcoin on its balance sheet. The proposal needs to gather 100,000 signatures to trigger a referendum in Switzerland.
The initiative requests to change the third paragraph of Article 99 of the constitution. The relevant text currently states:
“The Swiss National Bank shall create sufficient currency reserves from its revenues; part of these reserves shall be held in gold.”
If successful, the campaign would result in adding “and in Bitcoin.” to the end of the paragraph. The initiative saw the participation of the Swiss Bitcoin nonprofit think tank 2B4CH, which was responsible for preparing and submitting the documents. 2B4CH had some ties to industry heavyweights, with Giw Zanganeh, vice president of energy and mining at leading stablecoin issuer Tether, helping launch the campaign.
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The campaign is still ongoing
Meisser claims that holding Bitcoin would free the central bank from the political influence of its foreign currency holdings, most of which are in US dollars and euros. According to him, “politicians eventually give in to the temptation of printing money to fund their plans, but bitcoin is a currency that cannot be inflated through deficit spending.” 2B4CH founder and chairman Yves Bennaïm told Reuters:
“We are not saying — go all in with bitcoin, but if you have nearly 1 trillion francs in reserves, like the SNB does, then it makes sense to have 1–2% of that in an asset that is increasing in value, becoming more secure, and that everyone wants to own.”
Switzerland is a hub for blockchain enterprises, with its “Crypto Valley” in the town of Zug being the location where Ethereum was founded. The nation continues to generate crypto initiatives, with global grocery giant Spar rolling out Bitcoin-based payments in a Swiss city earlier this month.
The crypto Valley surpassed the $593 billion valuation mark, showcasing the growth trajectory of the region’s blockchain industry in 2024. Last year, the area saw the emergence of 17 crypto startup unicorns.
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Decentralized AI startup Nous Research has raised $50 million in a Series A round led by crypto venture giant Paradigm, marking one of the largest investments at the intersection of blockchain and artificial intelligence to date.
According to an April 25 report from Fortune, the funding round values Nous at a $1 billion token valuation. Previous investors include Distributed Global, North Island Ventures, and Delphi Digital, who contributed to Nous’s earlier $20 million seed rounds.
Operating since 2022, Nous Research is stepping into the spotlight with the latest fundraising to develop open-source AI models powered by decentralized infrastructure.
The company leverages the Solana blockchain to coordinate and incentivize global participation in training its AI models, aiming to challenge centralized giants like OpenAI and DeepSeek.
Related: Angels from Citadel, Jane Street, JPMorgan back $20M raise for Theo network
Nous harnesses global idle compute power for AI training
Founded by AI researchers, including collaborators like Diederik Kingma (co-inventor of the Adam optimizer), Nous is taking a different approach from typical crypto-AI projects.
Instead of relying on centralized data centers, it enables individuals worldwide to contribute idle computing power for AI training.
Blockchain technology underpins this model, ensuring secure, incentivized participation while mitigating risks like data poisoning through features such as Byzantine fault tolerance.
“We very much came from a mentality that we want to create and serve the world’s best AI,” co-founder Karan Malhotra told Fortune.
Per the report, the 20-person team at Nous Research will allocate much of the new capital toward scaling compute resources and advancing research.
In December 2024, Nous told Venture Beat that it is pre-training a 15-billion-parameter LLM in a decentralized manner, livestreaming progress to showcase transparency and performance.
Meanwhile, Paradigm’s backing signals a deepening interest in AI within crypto venture circles.
“This open, community-oriented approach is a powerful contrast to the closed, centralized efforts from incumbent labs,” Paradigm partner Arjun Balaji reportedly told the outlet.
Related: Crypto users cool with AI dabbling with their portfolios: Survey
Paradigm becomes top-performing crypto VC
Paradigm is one of the biggest and most successful crypto venture capital firms.
In March, Web3 data platform Kaito AI ranked Paradigm as the top-performing crypto VC over the past year, posting an impressive 11.80% performance metric, outperforming other major players like Alliance (10.64%), Dragonfly (8.32%), a16z (6.94%) and Multicoin Capital (5.86%).
Founded by Coinbase’s Fred Ehrsam and ex-Sequoia partner Matt Huang, Paradigm has built a strong reputation for spotting high-potential crypto projects early.
Its portfolio includes leading DeFi platforms like Uniswap (UNI) and dYdX, as well as consistent backing for Ethereum scaling solutions such as Optimism.
Paradigm also led a $255 million round for StarkNet, a key player in zero-knowledge rollup technology.
Paradigm did not respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment by publication.
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The crypto industry is bracing for a significant shift in regulatory tone following Paul Atkins’ swearing-in as chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission on April 21. A former SEC commissioner with deep roots in deregulatory philosophy, Atkins replaces Gary Gensler, whose combative stance toward crypto defined much of the agency’s recent legacy.
In the latest episode of Byte-Sized Insight with Cointelegraph, key industry figures weigh in on the implications of this leadership change and what it might unlock for innovation, investment and clarity for digital assets.
Crypto’s “golden age” continues
Chris Perkins, president of CoinFund, spoke with host Savannah Fortis and described his excitement regarding the new SEC chair, predicting a reduction in regulatory uncertainty under the new administration.
“We were under this regulatory reign of terror, you know, under the Biden administration,” said Perkins. “Investors in assets, they’re very comfortable taking market risk... but they’re not comfortable taking reputational risk, and along with that is regulatory risk.”
He pointed out how it was not only investors and companies who were nervous under the last administration, but also developers in the crypto space who had been targeted for their work.
Perkins highlighted how a shift in the regulatory climate could catalyze growth.
“Now, again, you're taking that personal liability off… So in a way, you have this perfect storm of new institutional capital coming in and new developers coming in. And I think the this is going to be a golden age for venture and value creation.”
Related: Paul Atkins’ loosely linked RSR token rises 13% after Coinbase listing
Katherine Dowling, general counsel and chief commercial officer at Bitwise Asset Management, agreed that change is already visible.
“The mood has already changed,” she said. “We’ve seen a flurry of activity around certain legal cases... being dismissed, dropped... not because all regulation is going away... but because more work needs to be done to define what these digital assets are.”
Dowling emphasized that the shift is about clarity, not deregulation.
“It’s a signal shift towards let’s take a step back and define what these are, what they look like, and how they should be regulated.”
What to expect from the Atkins era
James Gernetzke, chief financial officer of Bitcoin and crypto wallet Exodus, added that “the promise of being able to engage with a regulator on a reasonable basis… is going to be very helpful.”
Gernetzke said he expects a return to “more normal time frames” for IPOs and access to capital markets.
“I think the IPO rush... you will see probably towards the end... maybe months 10, 11, 12... it's coming for sure.”
Perkins captured the broader sentiment, calling the incoming market structure bill a potential unlock.
“This market structure bill is going to have a really big impact... because then I know what my asset is, and I have a process for capital formation. I have a process for disclosures... It’s going to be awesome.”
Listen to the full episode of Byte-Sized Insight for the complete interview on Cointelegraph’s Podcasts page, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And don’t forget to check out Cointelegraph’s full lineup of other shows!
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As the Russian government is considering a ban on cash-to-cryptocurrency transactions, some major local crypto exchange platforms have experienced police raids.
Mosca, a crypto-to-cash exchange located in the Moscow International Business Center, was raided on April 23 in connection with fraud by one of its customers, Mosca’s development head Dmitry Titarenko confirmed to Cointelegraph.
“Law enforcement agencies have carried out a standard procedure of checking our customer data,” Titarenko told Cointelegraph at the local crypto event Blockchain Forum 2025.
The Mosca office raid followed online reports linking several arrests of some Mosca customers to a crypto robbery involving a victim reportedly giving fraudsters a massive cash deposit worth millions of dollars.
Cash-to-crypto ban to protect investors?
The police raid on Mosca came the next day after Evgeny Masharov, a member of the Russian Civic Chamber, proposed banning crypto exchangers from accepting cash from their customers to buy cryptocurrencies like Tether USDt (USDT).
A potential ban on cash-to-crypto transactions would be a “massive blow to fraudsters,” Masharov said, adding that phone scammers were “often using crypto exchangers for withdrawing cash funds.”
Subsequently, local news channel Baza reported on the Mosca raid, linking the event with a “record-breaking fraud” against Olga Serova, a former government adviser in Russia’s Samara region.
Serova, 71, reportedly fell victim to scammers in late 2024, cashing out her bank accounts to pass the fraudsters about 421 million Russian rubles ($5.1 million). According to Baza, at least seven people were arrested, allegedly in connection with the case.
Mosca clients can buy up to 100,000 USDT with cash daily
Mosca, which allows investors to deposit up to 100,000 USDT ($100,000) daily, was unaware whether Serova’s incident was connected to its office raid, Titarenko said.
“Maybe it was another client,” he said, adding that the raid was the first criminal-case-related office raid at Mosca in the past three months.
Titarenko also said that Mosca has been actively beefing up its Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer checks, including maintaining a blacklist of suspicious users.
Related: Russia’s central bank, finance ministry to launch crypto exchange
The raid caught Mosca during a major local event, Blockchain Life, returning to Moscow for the first time since October 2021. The company was one of the main guests at the conference, taking two center stands and winning a title of the “best crypto exchange service.”
According to Sergey Mendeleev, a prominent figure in the Russian crypto community, the proposal to ban cash-to-crypto transactions is an alarming development for the community.
Speaking at the event, Mendeleev suggested that the Russian government might be turning away from crypto adoption if it approves such a ban.
He also mentioned that raids are a common situation for crypto exchange services located at the Moscow International Business Center, also known as Moscow City.
Garantex, a crypto exchange that halted trading after Tether froze $27 million in USDT due to sanctions, was also among the exchangers located in Moscow City.
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