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.

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

Blockchain

The use of smart contracts is inevitable in the blockchain. But what's its purpose, function & how it impacts the blockchain? Learn more.

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Smart contracts are automated and self-explanatory based on the predetermined conditions set on the contract. Since the 

 is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) that allows data to be stored globally across different servers, it relies heavily on these databases to confirm a transaction. Hence, smart contracts are appealing to eradicate administrative overhead.  

A smart contract represents the terms and conditions written in codes that automatically transfer funds from one party to another once the contract’s predefined requirements are met. For example, when both parties agree on exchanging a cryptocurrency, the transaction will move forward with the blockchain ledger via the protocol bound on the smart contract. 

Today, smart contracts remain popular in the crypto industry, primarily for exchanging cryptocurrencies. But it’s not restricted only to crypto, and in fact, many insurance and property companies are adopting this standard protocol for better scalability at a cheaper rate. In a nutshell, smart contracts are an essential component for many platforms. That is precisely why it is vital to clearly understand what smart contract is about and how they work.

What Is The Purpose of Smart Contracts in Blockchain?

Since smart contracts is a program that runs on the blockchain, users would need to send transactions to the blockchain to initiate the program. Once the codes are defined and logic is locked, then only can run the program.

Generally, smart contracts’ main purpose is to simplify business transactions between parties by removing intermediaries involved in traditional business processes. These contracts

aim to reduce payment delays, risks of errors, and a conventional contract’s intricacy without compromising authenticity and credibility.

Its main distinctive advantage is that it allows the performing of credible transactions without intermediaries.

How Do Smart Contracts Work in Blockchain?

Smart contracts refer to a computer algorithm designed to form, control, and provide information on the asset’s owner. It is indeed a program that runs on the 

 to facilitate, verify, or carry out credible transactions autonomously. To know how it works, first, we must understand what a smart contract consists of. 

When these requirements are set, you can then enter the blockchain-based smart contract. However, the agreement is subject to negotiation before the terms are put into practice in the blockchain. 

Typically, a smart contract will automatically trigger an action based on the agreement between two users sustaining on the blockchain. That means, when a seller intends to sell a BTC, the smart contract will govern the transfers until the BTC is successfully changed from one person to another. When that happens, the funds will be released, and there shall not be any changes. And all of the information about the transaction will be listed and stored in a public database.

The idea of smart contracts was originally 

, a well-known American cryptographer. In 1996, his article about smart contracts was published in the magazine 

where he prognosticated the benefits and features of the blockchain contract applications. He then developed this concept in several articles in the following years.

Ian Grigg and Gary Howland were the other contributors to the idea of smart contracts. They published their work about the Ricardian Contracts as a part of the Ricardo payment system in 1996.

The implementation of smart contracts became possible after Bitcoin and its blockchain had come into existence, having created appropriate conditions. This innovation finally broadcasted several years later on the Ethereum blockchain. Today, many alternative platforms allow users to take advantage of this function, though Ethereum remains the pioneer.

As mentioned above, smart contracts represent computer protocols or, in simple words, pieces of code that are a fundamental technological element. They serve to specify all the agreement conditions that are concluded between transaction parties to the blockchain. As soon as these conditions are fulfilled, the smart contract will automatically make a transaction.

A system based on the blockchain allows its participants to reduce intermediaries and excessive paperwork as it relies on the public ledger where any interested party can verify all transactions. The central requirement here is to describe all the agreement conditions via mathematical rules with suitable programming languages.

The blockchain represents a distributed network of nodes, each one storing the information about all transactions. To undo a transaction or to 

, one would have to gain control over more than 50% of all these nodes.

Supposed a person wants to initiate a smart contract, they’ll need to download special software and generate a public key published in the system. Subsequently, an initiating message should be sent, and the nodes will pick it up. When the event established by the smart contract is fulfilled, the codes will execute.

For example, vending machines automatically give a buyer an ordered item if specific requirements are met (a definite amount of money is paid). A smart contract works the same.

Apart from transferring funds, there are several other use cases:

Smart contracts use cases are variable and cover numerous opportunities. Potentially, they can become a powerful tool in many fields of human activities.

Smart contracts possess some distinctive features that mark them out of other forms of financial transactions:

Smart contracts are useful beyond cryptocurrency trading, including day-to-day tasks in financial services, IoT, and more. To your surprise, they are far more practical than anyone could imagine.

 It is a concept of adding the Internet function to the everyday objects in the house. Smart contracts can help users to achieve distributed and trustworthy access control for IoT systems.

 Smart contracts can make a contract execution very convenient. When it comes to human resources, by utilizing smart contracts, employee details like salaries, professional roles, and responsibilities can be recorded with ease. At the same time, the transparency and immutable characteristics of a smart contract enhance the trust between an employer and employee. The parties can record only a part of the agreement using smart contract technologies. In this context, the contract can be:

 A content owner should receive the royalties, but it is often tough to make sure who is a valid content owner as many parties can be involved in creating a single piece. Smart contracts can make it easy to understand the rights and responsibilities at any creative process stage.

Which Crypto and DApps Use Smart Contracts?

Today, smart contracts are much closer to our everyday life than one can think. Not only big businesses recognize them today. Numerous blockchain platforms are utilizing them in their activities, and various programming languages are used for writing smart contracts.

Ethereum is one of the most popular choices; that’s why its original coding language, Solidity, is widely used by developers. Other blockchains can prefer something different. 

Here’s an overview of the blockchains that can process smart contracts: 

 Bitcoin blockchain allows documents to be processed, relying on smart contracts. However, there is a limitation to process these documents.

: NXT offers templates for smart contracts. However, there’s a limitation on the selection because there are not many rooms for customization. 

 Ethereum thrives with smart contracts as it supports advanced coding and processing with flexibility and efficiency. However, the downside is that it comes with a price. Supposedly you want to customize something, but you’ll need to contribute ETH tokens as a payment for the computer power for it to be executed.

This might be the oldest smart contract platform, but its speed and security are arguably better than Ethereum. It boasts of a simpler, more straightforward, and easier to use interface. However, it is not suitable for complex contract development as it’s mainly to facilitate simpler smart contracts.

 based on smart contracts include online financial platforms such as MakerDAO and Compound, decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap.

There’s no one shoe fit all sizes kind of solutions, and that includes smart contracts. Of course, it’s helpful in the decentralized crypto space, but it has its limitations too. Here’s what you need to know:

The advantages of smart contracts are obvious and form the basis for smart contracts’ growing popularity. These are autonomy, security, high speed of performance, and the possibility to cut down costs associated with intermediaries. People choose them as they promise affordable yet accurate and efficient commercial transactions. 

Smart contracts allow excluding a possible failure of the human factor in operation, that’s true. But at the same time, there can be mistakes and vulnerable places within the smart contract’s code itself. These mistakes can result in vast amounts of losses. There are more than enough examples of when platforms were hacked and funds were stolen because of some code mistakes. Take the ill-famous 

The legality of such smart contracts is another point of discussion. It is unclear how governments and legal authorities should treat and regulate them as they are out of the state’s legal system. It is a disputable question if they even can be qualified as contracts by governmental institutions. Being outside the legal system also means that criminals can utilize this technology for illegal activities. Ultimately, it’s because smart contracts are not always in black and white. Hence the terms and conditions are vague.

The impossibility of changing something in the smart contract can also be a disadvantage. Fixing errors and changing contract terms will be an unsolvable problem.

Transparency is a great thing, but not always. Sometimes users need some privacy. Some platforms attempt to offer “smart private contracts” to their users, but this practice is unusual. Besides, introducing new technology can also involve costs. Only an experienced developer can create a reliable smart contract.

Generally, this technology still raises many questions. But what’s the future like? Will there be a new technology that will overcome its limitations or completely replace it?

Today it is already clear that smart contracts’ recognition will only grow in time. Of course, they will not completely replace traditional paper contracts in the next few years, but they will carve out their share in the market, particularly when buying or exchanging goods, services, and rights. It is no doubt that they will break into more and more spheres of people’s life.

The legality issues will be solved over the next few years in many countries as they are inevitable. Even today, Arizona and Nevada have already amended their state versions of the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) to incorporate blockchains and smart contracts into them unambiguously.

The smart contracts’ benefits can hardly be denied or underestimated. They look a great alternative to traditional agreements offering a higher level of performance. If they manage to gain a position, they will take the sphere of contracts and arrangements will change forever. They will change the way people do business.

Low costs, reduced frauds, and delays, complete autonomy make smart contracts appealing to the public. But only with increased efficiency and certainty in transactions and decrease the need for third parties makes smart contract even more interesting.

What Are Smart Contracts In Blockchain & How Do They Work?

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