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

Bybit Card

Bybit Guide

The Bybit Card is a virtual Mastercard crypto debit card that lets you access your crypto funds quickly and easily, allowing you to spend your crypto wherever and whenever.

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 and how to use them? Enter a whole new world of spending your crypto on the go with the Bybit Card. Not only is using this crypto debit card convenient and reliable, but it’s also a secure and fast way to make the most use of your crypto assets.

Let’s explore more on the Bybit Card and the limitless opportunities that it unlocks.

The Bybit Card is a Mastercard crypto debit card that lets you access your crypto funds quickly and easily, allowing you to spend your crypto wherever and whenever.

 It comes in both virtual and physical versions, and is currently available to users in EEA and CH regions, AIFC, Australia, Brazil and Argentina. 

Brought to you by Bybit and Mastercard, two of the leading innovators in fintech, a Bybit Card is the perfect way to ensure that you’re always digital-ready for everything crypto.

As a reliable and convenient way to off-ramp your crypto and spend on the go, the Bybit Card helps you to maximize and fully integrate crypto into your daily life. With it, you can utilize your earnings from Bybit's full suite of trading products and pay for your shopping — instantly.

As you make purchases, you can enjoy between 2–10% cashback, depending on your Bybit VIP level, with an for New Bybit Cardholders who sign up between Jan 1, 2025, 6 AM UTC, to Mar 31, 2025, 11:59 PM UTC, with an 

 — including on Tomorrowland Brasil presale ticket purchases from Apr 4–6, 2025.

Unlock a world of exclusive perks with the Bybit Card Rewards Program — including rewards from partners, such as unique offers and special experiences. Plus, you can automatically earn interest on your idle crypto assets—even without making purchases, along with other 

Additionally, the Bybit Card is easy and affordable to maintain. It’s valid for three years and its virtual version comes with auto-renewal after expiration. There are no annual or dormancy fees

, although there may be a minimal 5 EUR/USDT issuance fee for the physical card based on your region. 

For the virtual version of the card, you won’t be charged any issuance or account closure fees. 

The only chargeable fees are the foreign exchange and crypto conversion fees for certain countries, as well as 2% ATM withdrawal fees after the first free monthly limit: 100 EUR in EEA and CH, 100 USD in Australia in AIFC, 95K ARS in Argentina and 550 BRL in Brazil.

Transacting using your crypto assets shouldn’t be complicated. As such, Bybit has created a way to make life easier for its users through this crypto debit card. The following are some of the unique selling points of the Bybit Card:

Over 90 million merchants accept the Bybit crypto debit card. All you need is to shop and pay at stores that display the Mastercard logo. As one of the leading global electronic payment providers, Mastercard has an expansive merchant network around the world. 

Bybit’s strategic partnership with Mastercard provides a secure platform for its users to conveniently pay for goods and services using cryptocurrencies.  

Currently, you can select and pay anytime, with one of the following six cryptocurrencies using your Bybit Card 

The transaction process is fast and straightforward since it is done directly from your Bybit account through an intuitive and user-friendly dashboard. We're also adding more crypto options and allowing multi-asset spending in a single transaction in the future, so stay tuned for the upcoming developments!

At Bybit, keeping our customers' funds safe is a priority. For that reason, we saw Mastercard as a perfect fit, since their platform observes strict security standards to prevent loss of funds and customer information. 

-enabled which is a cutting-edge fraud prevention technology that allows for consumer authentication when making online payments. When using your Bybit Card, you can comfortably shop knowing that there’s an additional layer of security present to keep fraudsters at bay.

As a customer-centric platform, Bybit provides 24/7 multilingual customer support for all its products, including the Bybit Card. We have a team of dedicated live agents to address any questions, concerns or inquiries related to your Bybit Card.

Bybit Card’s exciting Loyalty Rewards Program lets you earn Bybit Card Loyalty points every time you pay using our crypto debit card. Depending upon the Loyalty points accumulated, you can redeem them for different rewards. You can also activate the 

 function to automatically receive cashback on all purchases conducted with fiat and crypto in USDT, to be credited to your 

Bybit has over 20 trading products available on its exchange, including 

. With the Bybit Card, you can easily and quickly off-ramp your earnings and spend them to make online payments.

You can use the Bybit Card with online retailers and merchants all across the globe. With a Virtual Bybit Card, you can 

 once you’ve applied successfully, while a physical Bybit Card allows you to make online payments, as well as contactless payments in retail stores using point-of-sale (POS) terminals that support contactless payments. You can add Bybit Card to Google Pay (available for EEA and CH, Argentina, Brazil and Australia), Apple Pay (EEA, Argentina and Brazil) and Samsung Pay (EEA & CH and AIFC). 

Your virtual Bybit Card is activated automatically and is available for immediate use once your application is successful. In addition, you don’t need to activate foreign transactions separately. Your Bybit Card tier follows your Bybit account's VIP level. Please refer to 

 for more information on Bybit Card benefits for different VIP levels.

Managing funds on your Bybit Card is straightforward. It is, however, important to understand how your funds are deducted during payments, especially during times when you have insufficient fiat in your account. 

The Bybit Card doesn’t have a separate wallet. As such, it uses the balance in your Bybit Funding Account. To add funds to your Funding Account, you can use the 

 option or deposit crypto from other platforms/wallets.

When making a transaction using the Bybit Card, the fiat currency is automatically denominated based on the 

Once you pay using your crypto debit card and the transaction is authorized, the amount you’ve spent will be frozen in your Funding Account, and then it will be deducted once the merchant completes the transaction.

Should the merchant cancel (i.e., reverse) prior authorization or refund the transaction, the frozen amount will be returned to your Funding Account’s 

In a situation where there’s not enough fiat in your Funding Account to complete a transaction, your chosen crypto in your account will be converted to fiat to cover the deficit. 

Note that there’s a minimum crypto conversion fee of 1 EUR/USD, 5,000 ARS or 10 BRL.

Payments will automatically be denominated in the currency on your card, even if you’re making foreign transactions. 

If you purchase a product that’s charged in foreign currency, your funds will be deducted according to Mastercard's foreign exchange rate, 

 the Bybit Card foreign exchange fee of 0.5% for EEA, 1% for Australia, 7% for Argentina, 1.5% for Brazil and 2% for AIFC. 

For more information on exchange rate, refer 

When there are insufficient crypto and fiat funds in your Funding Account, the transaction will be declined. You can top off your Funding Account either through the 

 feature, or the direct deposit of crypto from external platforms or wallets via the Bybit dashboard.

Follow these five simple steps to pay using your Bybit Virtual Card:

You can use the Bybit Physical Card for both online and offline transactions. To make payment for online purchases, you can obtain your physical card details (i.e. card number, CVV and expiration date) either from the 

 in your Bybit Account, or the physical card itself. The Bybit Physical Card can be used for any in-store payments that support contactless chip and PIN purchases. 

 that there are contactless usage limits in Europe. A single transaction has a maximum limit of 50 EUR, and the cumulative amount of contactless payments is 150 EUR. Additionally, the maximum number of consecutive contactless payments is six. 

Your card will be declined if you make contactless transactions exceeding these limits.

In case of a dispute regarding a transaction you’ve made, we highly recommend that you reach out directly to the merchant involved if you wish to request a refund.

don’t recognize any particular transaction, or you otherwise suspect that your card credentials may have been compromised, you can choose either to freeze your crypto debit card immediately or replace it, and then contact our Customer Support within 45 days of the transaction for further assistance

Ways To Protect Yourself From Debit Card Frauds

As cybersecurity crimes continue to become more sophisticated, it’s important to learn how to detect them — and how to protect yourself from debit card fraud. It’s easy to detect suspicious activity on your Bybit Card, since you’ll notice funds missing in your Funding Account balance. 

Because your Bybit Card is available virtually, you need to stay alert for any fraudulent activities. Here are some ways to help you prevent fraudulent activities on your Bybit Card:

Using a crypto debit card increases the liquidity of your digital assets and provides you the convenience of spending cryptocurrency in your daily life. 

Whether you’re paying bills or buying goods online, the Bybit Card helps you maximize your crypto usage while keeping your funds safe. 

It’s issued in partnership with Mastercard, so you can spend your preferred cryptocurrencies anywhere a merchant displays the Mastercard logo. E

asy to use with its intuitive mobile app, the Bybit Card gives you an efficient way to manage your digital assets on the go!

What Is Bybit Card and How to Use It

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