Apr 21, 2025: Our weekly Institutional Insights explores the latest market developments — market performance, industry news, exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows, trending topics, upcoming events and token unlocks — to help you supercharge your crypto trading.

 explores the latest market developments — market performance, industry news, exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows, trending topics, upcoming events and token unlocks — to help you supercharge your crypto trading.

Weekly highlight — Trump wants to fire Powell? 

US president Donald Trump is actively considering firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, following Trump's public criticism of Powell for not moving quickly enough to reduce interest rates. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett confirmed that the administration is examining this option, suggesting that Powell's actions have politically favored Democrats. Hassett argued that the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates shortly after Trump took office was intended to undermine the economic impact of the tax cuts implemented during his administration, which were deemed inflationary. He further criticized the Fed for not addressing inflation concerns stemming from federal spending under President Biden, implying a lack of accountability.

During a recent press conference, Trump conveyed his dissatisfaction with Powell, asserting that if he wanted to remove him, it could happen "real fast." While he did not explicitly state his intention to dismiss Powell, his remarks highlighted the growing tensions between the White House and the Federal Reserve regarding monetary policy. Hassett defended Trump's frustrations, advocating for a focus on economic policy rather than interpersonal conflicts. This situation underscores the complex dynamics between the executive branch and the central bank, as Trump navigates economic challenges leading up to the next election.

Weekly crypto highlight — XRP ETF coming

HashKey Capital has officially launched the HashKey XRP Tracker Fund, marking the first investment fund in Asia designed specifically to track the performance of XRP, the digital asset integral to Ripple's global payment ecosystem. This fund is aimed at professional investors and offers a unique opportunity to gain exposure to XRP without the complexities of direct asset management. Investors can subscribe through cash and in-kind options, with the fund providing monthly liquidity.

Ripple, as an early backer of the fund, is looking to enhance its strategic partnership with HashKey Capital, which already manages Hong Kong–listed spot ETFs for Bitcoin and Ethereum. This collaboration not only solidifies Ripple's presence in the Asian market, but also opens avenues for future financial products, such as the potential tokenization of a money market fund on the XRP Ledger. Fiona Murray, Ripple's Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific region, highlighted that this partnership is part of a broader strategy to introduce more regulated cryptocurrency products for institutional investors in the region, aiming to foster a more robust crypto landscape in Asia.

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Weekly Institutional Insights: Trump’s desire to fire Powell might induce volatility; XRP ETF coming

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has approved a new Ethereum ETF with staking capabilities, allowing institutional investors to earn staking rewards.

Daily top performer — Pyth Network (PYTH)

The S&P 500 dropped 1.5% to 5,282.70 this week, down 5.9% in April and 10% year-to-date, led by tech losses. Real estate and energy outperformed, while political pressure on Fed Chair Powell and inflation concerns weighed on sentiment. Gold dipped 0.6% to $3,319 after a record high, as Powell’s stagflation warning tempered its rally. Despite the pullback, the uptrend remains intact. The Coindesk Indices, which tracks the broader crypto market, are up by 0.77%, with Bitcoin and Ether rising 0.64% and 0.72%, respectively, over the past 24 hours. Trade these markets and more with up to 500x leverage on Bybit MT5 using this 

Today's top performer is PYTH, up 10.1%, following the launch of Pyth Entropy for secure on-chain random number generation by Soneium.

Pyth Network (PYTH),  is a blockchain oracle system that delivers real-time crypto price data to blockchains, enabling smart contracts to react to market changes. Soneium 

 Pyth Entropy, a tool for securely generating random numbers on-chain. Two apps, HandsNFT AI and 2p2e, are already utilizing Pyth Entropy to create unpredictable and engaging experiences.

Check out the latest prices, charts, and data of 

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has approved a new Ethereum ETF with staking capabilities, allowing institutional investors to earn staking rewards. This approval follows recent changes to local laws, with China Asset Management (ChinaAMC) partnering with OSL Digital Securities to launch the ETF by May 15. The ETF will offer exposure to Ethereum staking, transforming it from a passive investment into an active participant in the Ethereum network. The staking process is powered by Kiln, with OSL providing custody and insurance services. The rewards will contribute to the ETF's net asset value, benefiting shareholders.

Yesterday, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw $25.9M in inflows, all from non-GBTC funds, while GBTC recorded no flow.

" and a points campaign called Drops, where users can earn points—potentially leading to an airdrop—by engaging with Linera content on X. To join, sign up on 

, complete tasks like joining Discord and interacting on X, then enter the campaign. Keep engaging to earn more points, but avoid spamming.

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Hong Kong approves Ethereum ETF with staking rewards, boosting institutional participation

Our weekly crypto derivatives analytics report delves into macro events; the current state of crypto and trading signals from spot trading volume; and futures, options and perpetual contracts.

US president Donald Trump’s tariff policies are influencing both crypto and US equities. Last week, BTC and the S&P 500 rallied due to a 90-day pause in reciprocal tariffs (excluding China). Equities are slightly below their April 9 highs, while BTC is holding above $83K. Its implied volatility term structure has normalized, and the volatility skew has improved from last week’s bias toward out-of-the-money puts, though it hasn't fully shifted toward calls.

Please check out the report’s highlights.

Tariff pause briefly brings back trading volume

Since our last report, open interest surged on Apr 9, 2025, as crypto spot prices rose after President Trump’s temporary tariff pause, accompanied by a nearly $10B increase in trade volumes. However, trade volumes have since returned to mid-March levels, and open interest has declined from the April 9 highs. The initial price spike indicates the tariff pause surprised the markets, but the subsequent pullback reflects concerns over remaining tariffs.

After being inverted for much of April due to trade policy shocks and macro headwinds, BTC’s term structure has disinverted, with front-end volatility dropping significantly this week. Call and put volumes have been balanced, with calls slightly exceeding puts most days. Apr 9, 2025, reflected mixed market sentiment, as both call and put volumes rose, but puts were higher overall. Open interest remains greater in calls, and has increased slightly since last week, reaching its highest level for the month (more than double from the beginning of April).

Despite a rally on Apr 9, 2025 that brought ETH close to $1.7K, traders sought downside protection, leading to higher volumes in put contracts as compared to calls. Since then, ETHUSDT options volumes have declined, but open interest remains strongly weighted toward calls with later expirations, which have increased since last week. After being inverted for much of April, ETH’s term structure of volatility has flattened, with volatility compressing around the 70% mark across tenors.

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Bybit X Block Scholes crypto derivatives analytics report (Apr 16, 2025): Bitcoin put bias has moderated, but not yet shifted to calls

KiloEx (KILO) is a user-friendly DEX for perpetuals trading, offering high leverage, rewards, LSTfi integration and a robust multi-chain ecosystem.

 trading is one of the most lucrative areas for cryptocurrency enthusiasts if you know how to navigate the sometimes complex world of these contracts. Unlike standard futures, perpetual futures contracts have no expiration date, allowing traders to hold onto their positions as long as they prefer. You only exit a crypto perpetual (or “perp”) contract when you feel it’s the best time to execute your long or short trade. The lack of an expiration period makes these contracts attractive for traders.

Unfortunately, many crypto perpetual contract trading platforms are far from user-friendly. It seems like many perpetual crypto exchanges assume that only professional traders dabble in these contracts, and along with that assumption goes a second one — that these pros can navigate even the most complex user interfaces. As a result, finding a user-friendly perps platform is a challenge in the world of crypto trading.

 (DEX) that aims to change the status quo by providing a user-friendly environment for traders. Its platform also offers high leverage ratios, integration into the wider liquid staking token finance (LSTfi) ecosystem and generous reward programs for referrers and affiliates.

Thanks to its numerous benefits, this DEX caters to the needs of traders at all levels of expertise who are interested in crypto perpetuals. Operational since mid-2023, KiloEx launched its native token, KILO, in March 2025 to further enhance its platform's reward, staking and governance mechanisms.

 (BNB) that specializes in crypto perpetual futures trading.

 The platform prides itself on offering a user-friendly interface, high 

 ratios of up to 100x, multi-token vaults with generous APYs and a number of reward programs for referrers and affiliates.

Co-founded by Joey Ni (CEO) and Charles Gong (COO), KiloEx was originally launched on BNB Chain's mainnet in June 2023. As of mid-April 2025, the platform has additionally expanded its service coverage to five 

 (B2). This coverage allows KiloEx to access the ecosystems of three leading blockchain platforms — 

Manta, Base and Taiko are Ethereum-focused Layer 2 solutions, while opBNB is an efficient and low-cost optimistic rollup for the BNB Chain, while B

 is a platform linked to Bitcoin that acts as a major Bitcoin DeFi (BTCFi) enabler.

Because it’s a BNB-native platform, KiloEx's industry footprint is most notable within this blockchain's broader ecosystem. In fact, as Apr 17, 2025, KiloEx is the top DEX on the opBNB network by 

Using Layer 2 chains allows KiloEx to offer its users fast and low-cost transactions, which isn't always possible on a typical Layer 1 network. It's true that BNB Chain, the primary Layer 1 used by KiloEx, generally has much lower gas fees than Ethereum, the industry's leading 

 chain that’s notorious for its exorbitant costs. However, KiloEx's partner Layer 2 networks help drive costs and transaction times even lower. BNB Chain's current average gas fee is slightly over $0.10, while the opBNB Layer 2 rollup's comparable fee is only about $0.005.

In 2024, the platform introduced one of its most innovative features — the 

, which allows liquidity providers to stake multiple assets to earn high yields. That same year, KiloEx significantly expanded its partnership network, becoming an active player in the LSTFi ecosystem. LSTFi is a new stream within the DeFi industry that allows you to use 

 (LSTs) on various protocols for additional yield.

Having solidified its market presence in 2024, the project launched its native token, KILO, in March 2025. However, in mid-April 2025, KiloEx 

 and halted trading on April 15 as a risk management measure, pending investigation of the damage.

The Hybrid Vault is among the most innovative features offered by KiloEx. Essentially, it acts similarly to liquidity pools on other exchanges. Liquidity providers can contribute their crypto funds to the vault to support trading activity on the DEX and earn interest on their contributions, based on the fees earned by the protocol.

You can contribute a mix of coins to a KiloEx vault. Supported assets include 

Depending upon trading activity and the mix of coins contributed, you can earn APYs as high as 30%, making KiloEx one of the most lucrative choices for liquidity providers in this niche.

KiloEx uses a health factor calculation for this type of vault to keep your funds and the entire ecosystem safe. Based on the health factor score of your contribution to the vault, your funds could be liquidated if their value drops dangerously low.

Discounts are also offered for fixed-term deposits for established assets, such as USDT and USDC. Withdrawals for the fixed deposits are processed upon maturity, while all other withdrawals are processed within one to three "epochs," with each epoch on the platform lasting about three days. Thus, depending upon your contributed funds, you’ll wait anywhere from three to nine days to receive your crypto back.

The KiloEx platform also runs a generous referral program under which you can earn rewards for referring your friends to the platform. The amount you earn depends upon the trading volumes generated by the people whom you’ve referred. Additionally, your referees to the DEX can also benefit from fee rebates, again depending upon the volume of trade they generate.

There’s a tiered system, comprising nine levels, based on which you and your friends earn commissions and rebates. Under this system, even those referred traders whose monthly volume is at the lowest level (below $5,000) can still benefit from 5% rebates, while you also earn a 10% commission.

The table below shows the structure of this referral system with percentages for commission and rebates based on monthly trading volumes.

KiloEx offers an affiliate program for key opinion leaders (KOLs) with a certain level of social media following and influence in the crypto market. KOLs may apply to join the program by filling out an application, which is then considered by the project team within 48 hours.

To qualify for affiliate status, a KOL must have: 

Approved affiliates are provided a link to the platform, and are encouraged to invite their followers to trade on the KiloEx. If they invite at least five followers who trade at sufficient levels, the affiliates can start earning their commission. KOLs can earn up to 55% commission, depending upon the referred followers' trading activity.

KiloEx’s native utility token, KILO, is a 

 asset launched on BNB Chain. It’s used on the platform for governance, fee discounts on trades, rewards via 

, liquidity provision incentives and staking.

KILO is a supply-capped asset, with a maximum and total supply of 1 billion. The token’s supply allocation shares are shown in the chart below.

xKILO is an escrowed version of the KILO token. You can convert KILO to xKILO at a fixed rate of 1:1. The primary utility of xKILO is to provide boosted liquidity provision, which makes it possible to receive staking rewards. By locking xKILO on the platform, you can access special discounts and other benefits reserved for VIP-level users. Holding xKILO also grants you governance power to vote and influence the platform's future direction.

Unlike KILO, xKILO is nontransferable and isn’t tradable on the secondary market. The only ways to obtain xKILO are either to buy it with KILO or receive it via airdrops.

Platform users can earn points to qualify for KILO airdrops. Typically, you accumulate points by trading, depositing funds, referring others to the DEX, checking in to the platform and completing other specified eligible activities.

The project’s initial airdrop, Genesis Season, had an eligibility snapshot taken back in July 2024. Under the currently running airdrop campaign, Pioneer Season, users can earn points to receive KILO tokens for 180 days past the token generation event (TGE) in late March 2025 (i.e., until late September 2025).

Additionally, you can earn KILO tokens on Bybit simply by participating in the 

 event and holding BNB in your account. Every day at various random times, Bybit will take snapshots of your BNB holdings in your Funding and Unified Trading Accounts to calculate the number of KILO tokens you’re eligible for. The campaign will run through Apr 25, 2025, 11:59PM UTC, and you’ll have your share of KILO airdropped seven days after this date.

 market as a swap pair with USDT. If you don't have a Bybit account, you can easily 

, and access opportunities across hundreds of trading pairs and crypto products on the exchange's Spot and Derivatives markets.

As of Apr 17, 2025, the KILO token is trading at $0.039, which is 76.2% lower than its ATH of $0.1648 on Mar 27, 2025, and 17.3% higher than its ATL of $0.03344 on Apr 12, 2025.

Long-term price forecasts for KILO are mostly bullish. CoinCodex 

 at $0.0387 in 2027 and then rise to $0.135 in 2030 while PricePredictions 

When it comes to perpetuals trading, both traditional 

 (CEXs) and DEXs have often struggled to offer an intuitive trading experience. In contrast, KiloEx has made user-friendliness a cornerstone of its operations. With KiloEx, you can enjoy a streamlined trading process, access market trends info for thorough research, get an overview of the cryptocurrency market and conduct other activities via an interface that’s designed for anyone, irrespective of their familiarity with decentralized trading.

The platform also boasts a diverse range of other benefits not easily found in the world of perpetuals-based cryptocurrency trading — generous leveraged trading options, trading fee discounts, lightning-fast trades, low trading fees and an innovative Hybrid Vault system. Many of these benefits are thanks to KiloEx's collaboration with several Layer 2 decentralized platforms, which provide the technical infrastructure to enable low costs and fast order processing.

If you’re a crypto perpetuals enthusiast, KiloEx is definitely a platform to peruse.

Intermediate

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KiloEx (KILO): More than a DEX — a rewarding ecosystem

Crypto

Investing

Why is crypto crashing? Find out all the possible reasons for a crypto crash and what you can do to protect yourself from the next big crash.

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The cryptocurrency market has always been known to be wildly volatile, with rises and falls in prices as dramatic as a rollercoaster ride. The recent May meltdown is one of the greatest crypto crashes in years. It’s left many crypto investors high and dry — especially if you're one of those who have poured their life savings into crypto investments. The bad news of this latest drop can turn your life upside down; you're not sure what happened or why, but you're panicking and wondering if you should sell everything.

Put a hold on that thought, and stay calm. You’ll first need to find out more about the possible reasons why crypto is crashing before you make any irreversible decisions.

 is a digital currency that’s secured by cryptography, making it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend. Cryptocurrencies are decentralized, meaning they aren’t subject to the control of governments or financial institutions around the world.

The popularity of cryptocurrencies has grown in recent years, due to their potential for investment gain, their use as a hedge against traditional fiat currencies, and for peer-to-peer online payments. Some experts believe that cryptocurrency will eventually replace fiat currency altogether, but this remains to be seen. In the meantime, crypto remains a volatile but potentially lucrative investment.

Now that you’re up to speed on what a cryptocurrency is, here are eight of the most common reasons for a cryptocurrency crash. 

Granted, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have the potential to be used as a form of payment anywhere in the world. After all, we’ve recently seen increased levels of adoption with countries such as El Salvador even announcing that Bitcoin would be accepted as legal tender. But for the most part, cryptocurrencies aren’t widely used as a means of payment, but rather are held as investment commodities.

This limited utility is one of the main reasons cited by experts for crypto crashes. If there's no real-world use for a digital asset, then it's likely its value will eventually crash. After all, there's only so much speculation that can prop up a currency with no actual use.

 of small businesses accept cryptocurrencies as payment for goods and services. Compared to other payment options, like credit cards (80%) or PayPal (61%), crypto transactions are still in the minority.

Another major factor that can cause a crypto crash is government regulation. Over the years, select jurisdictions have cracked down on crypto, but its implications have been most fully felt with China’s aggressive crackdown.

In September 2017, the Chinese government imposed a nationwide ban on initial coin offerings (ICOs), which are a form of crowdfunding for crypto projects, and also ordered all exchanges to cease trading activities. This caused the value of Bitcoin to 

 in just a matter of days. In June 2021, China was at it again, putting its foot down on all crypto-related activities. This led to multiple crypto miners shutting down their businesses. As China miners contribute to 65% of mining activities worldwide, ramifications were unavoidable. After enjoying an all-time high of $65,000 for the month of April, prices 

Although the Bitcoin network has since recovered, there’s no telling what other cryptocurrency regulations may be imposed in the future, which could potentially lead to another crypto crash.

Other countries that have stringent laws when it comes to crypto include South Korea, which implemented several restrictions on crypto trade in 2018. Egypt, Iraq, Bangladesh and Algeria have also placed harsh regulations on crypto-related activities.

In most cases, when a regulatory body announces that it's going to crack down on cryptocurrencies it can lead to a sell-off, as investors worry about what the new rules will mean for the future of the crypto market.

Another common factor that can lead to a crypto crash is FUD, which stands for fear, uncertainty and doubt. As some cryptocurrencies (such as 

) do not have much inherent value on their own, their values are very much tied to investor sentiment. If there's negative news about a particular cryptocurrency or company, investors may sell, wishing to avoid potential losses. And as crypto is closely intertwined with macroeconomic events, a stock market crash, inflation, or any catastrophic world event can cause a crash in crypto prices.

 is a perfect case of FUD. The current overall bearish stock market and the global economy will naturally lead people to be more conservative in their investments. And with crypto being a volatile asset that’s highly susceptible to broader market swings, people will feel FUD when it comes to risky investments. On top of that, over a span of just a few days last month, the algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD and its sister currency, Luna, entirely collapsed. This created a cloud of fear among crypto investors, causing prices to dip even further for all other cryptocurrencies.

Another notable example was when Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced in May 2021 that his company would no longer accept Bitcoin as payment for its electric vehicles. This caused the price of Bitcoin to 

Similarly, if there's any news about hacks or security breaches, that can also trigger a sell-off, as investors lose confidence in the safety of their investments.

Crypto exchange hacks can also contribute to crashing crypto prices. If a major exchange is hacked and investors lose their funds, that can trigger a sell-off as people lose confidence in the safety of cryptocurrencies and rush to trade in their digital assets for stable fiat currencies.

 in 2014, for instance, led to the loss of 850,000 bitcoins, worth over $470 billion at that time. This in turn led to a 20% fall in Bitcoin prices. After all, exchanges are where people often buy and sell cryptocurrencies, so if there's a security breach, that can lead to significant losses and panic across the crypto market.

5. Cascading Sell-Offs Caused by Margin Debt

As the popularity of cryptocurrencies continues to grow, so does the amount of money that investors are willing to put into digital assets. While this can provide a boost to the market and lead to increased trading activity, it can also create the risk of a crypto market crash. One way this can occur is through margin debt. 

Margin debt is incurred by an investor who performs 

 — that is, borrowing funds, or leveraging from a broker or an exchange, to trade. When investors borrow money to purchase additional coins, they increase their potential profits — but also their potential losses. The greater the leverage, the greater the effect in the price drop when assets get liquidated, creating a cascade selloff effect leading to a plunge in the crypto prices.

Sometimes, a crypto crash can be caused by technical issues. For example, a problem with the technology underlying a particular cryptocurrency can lead to a sell-off. This was the case with Ethereum in 2016, when a hack led to the 

Similarly, if there are any issues with popular wallets or exchanges, that can also lead to a sell-off as investors lose confidence in the safety of their digital currencies.

Even though Bitcoin is renowned for pioneering the crypto revolution, and Ethereum for its smart contract platform, these first- and second-generation cryptocurrencies continue to be weighed down by inherent technical issues and a lack of scalability.

With over 17,000 digital currencies available today, innovative dilution of legacy cryptocurrencies is inevitable. Since Bitcoin and Ethereum dictate the entire market, any major technical setback could lead to a domino effect and a sharp sell-off across the market.

Unfortunately, there are always people looking to take advantage of investors in the crypto market. From the 

 scheme of FaZe Clan, crypto enthusiasts were targeted by several high-profile scams throughout 2021, with reports showing scammers got away with over $14 billion worth of value from the market.

Given the high-tech nature of cryptocurrencies, it can be easy for scammers to create fake wallets, exchanges, and even digital currencies. These 

 can often lead to investors losing their hard-earned money, which can trigger distrust in the overall markets of cryptocurrencies and everything blockchain-related.

Scams in the crypto space not only lead to investors losing millions of dollars or more, but also contribute to a general increase in skepticism and FUD around cryptocurrencies.

Another factor that can cause a crypto crash is market manipulation. This is when someone tries to artificially manipulate the market by spreading FUD or buying and selling large amounts of a particular cryptocurrency. This can often be done by a group of people or entities working together, known as whales.

 are investors with a large amount of money to put into the market, and they can (intentionally or not) often have a significant impact on prices. For example, if a whale buys a large amount of Bitcoin all at once, that could lead to an increase in the price. However, if they then sell all of their Bitcoin at once, that could lead to a sharp decrease in the price.

While market manipulation can be difficult to spot, it's important to be aware that it does happen in the crypto world.

Now that you know some of the main reasons why crypto crashes happen, you may be wondering what you can do to protect your investments in case of a crash.

: If you invest in only one asset, your risk is amplified. To reduce your risk, diversify your portfolio. This means investing in a variety of different cryptocurrencies, as well as other forms of investment, rather than putting all your eggs in one basket.

Don't invest more than you can afford to lose

: It's important to remember that the cryptocurrency market is still very volatile, and crashes can happen at any time. As such, don’t invest more money than you responsibly can.

: This is an investing strategy whereby one regularly invests a fixed amount of money on an asset each month, spreading out the investment over time. Regardless of the market’s ups and downs, investments are continuously made so that you lower the average cost of your purchase as compared to making a lump-sum purchase when the market price is high.

: One of the most popular crypto phrases is "HODL," originally a typo, which has come to stand for "hold on for dear life." This phrase is often used during times of market volatility to encourage investors to hold onto their coins, rather than sell them in panic. After all, the volatility of the market means that when crypto prices fall, they’ll eventually rise again, as evidenced by the dramatic movements of Bitcoin over the years.

While there's no guaranteed way to fully protect your assets during a crypto crash, following these tips can help you minimize your losses and ensure that you're prepared for market volatility.

Cryptocurrencies have brought life-altering gains to many investors. However, with every major market rally comes the potential for a devastating market retracement.

For most onlookers, these volatile market swings are a cause for concern. But for those who have done their research — and are prepared for the crypto market’s ups and downs — these sudden price changes present an opportunity to buy assets at discounted prices.

Whether you’re new to the world of cryptocurrencies or have been investing for years, it’s important to understand the various factors that can lead to a crypto crash. By being aware of these risks, you can make sure that you’re prepared for market volatility and ready to take advantage of any opportunities that may arise.

Crypto Crash: 8 Reasons Why it Happens

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