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.

Beginner

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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

DeFi

One up-and-coming use case for NFTs is “staking” — locking up a collection in a pool and earning rewards from the staking platform.  Here's how you can get started on this. One up-and-coming use case for NFTs is “staking” — locking up a collection in a pool and earning rewards from the staking platform.  Here's how you can get started on this.

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 (NFTs) have gained significant attention since 2021, with prominent collections such as 

. NFTs are commonly known as digital representations of art and collectibles that could potentially appreciate in value over time. However, as the NFT landscape progresses, artists, developers and collectors have been exploring new use cases for NFTs, one of which is NFT staking — the locking of NFTs in a protocol in exchange for rewards.

In this guide, we’re going to take a look at what NFT staking is, how it works, factors to consider when staking NFT, pros and cons of staking NFTs, the type of rewards holders can receive and the best platforms for NFT staking. 

NFT staking refers to locking up NFTs on a platform or protocol in exchange for staking rewards and other benefits. Staking NFTs allows holders to earn passive income from their NFT holdings while maintaining ownership.

, typically based on the Ethereum network, that use the ERC-721 token standard, meaning every NFT is unique. These cryptographic tokens — much like cryptocurrencies — are recorded on the blockchain, and can be used to prove the ownership, authenticity and provenance of pretty much anything physical or digital, including artwork, 

A lot of the buzz and hype around NFTs concerns their potential to revolutionize the 

. A significant number of NFTs that have made headlines generally involve art. For example, digital artist 

 made history in March 2021 after selling his NFT artwork “Everydays: the First 5000 Days” 

 at Christie’s. This was one of the first milestones to accelerate the meteoric rise of NFTs. 

NFTs have also found a role to play in blockchain-based 

. Play-to-earn crypto games use NFTs to give players verifiable ownership of virtual items they collect in games. Examples are 

The uniqueness of NFTs makes them ideal for wait-and-

 strategies, though it can take a while before such long-term investment comes to fruition. Buying and holding onto NFTs isn’t without its drawbacks. The process of minting, buying and selling NFTs can be resource-intensive, sometimes requiring high transaction fees, especially on 

. There’s also the uncertainty of whether the NFT will actually appreciate in value over time. 

NFT staking opens up new opportunities for collectors to monetize their NFT collections, and has become a new method for NFT holders to earn passive income. By locking their NFTs into 

 (DeFi) protocols, owners can earn passive income through staking yields offered by DeFi protocols while maintaining ownership over their locked NFTs. 

NFT staking is similar to the concept of 

, in which users holding onto cryptocurrencies can lend or stake their assets to liquidity providers to receive rewards. It’s also similar to earning interest from a bank account, but without a middleman facilitating transactions and taking a cut. 

 involves “locking” tokens in a digital wallet to support a blockchain network’s operations and security in exchange for rewards. Platforms that support staking typically use a 

Blockchains rely on a global network of transaction validators to secure their networks by authenticating transactions before the data is added to new blocks on their chains. These validators are rewarded in the native cryptocurrency of a particular blockchain for devoting their resources to the network. 

For energy-intensive blockchains that use a 

 (PoW) mechanism, such as Bitcoin, the resource validators must devote their computing power, which requires a lot of electricity and expensive specialized hardware. 

 by requiring significantly fewer computing resources to verify transactions and secure the network. Users who want to become validators simply have to “stake,” or pledge, the native cryptocurrency of a blockchain. Hence, simply put, the security of the blockchain network increases when more holders stake their cryptocurrency.

If you're familiar with depositing money in a bank savings account, then you can easily comprehend NFT staking. While there are differences, the main principle is the same: You're able to earn interest on your funds for the duration you're invested. By staking your NFTs, you're essentially locking them into a smart contract and using them as collateral to earn rewards during the staking period. 

The rewards are often based on the established annual percentage yield (APY) and number of NFTs staked. NFT staking is a simple way to make the most out of your investments, with the added benefit of giving you extra earnings.

However, it’s important to note that, like cryptocurrencies, not every NFT can be staked for rewards. Make sure to check a platform's rules before staking your NFTs, since there may be unique requirements for each one.

The type of reward NFT holders can get for staking their collection depends on the platform used and the type of NFT staked. The majority of platforms that allow users to stake NFTs offer daily or weekly rewards. Staking rewards are typically issued in a platform’s native utility token, which is often listed on exchanges and can be traded for other cryptocurrencies or 

Some staking platforms feature a decentralized autonomous organization (

), in which NFT holders can lock up their assets in the DAO pool to participate in the platform’s governance and vote on future proposals. NFT holders can then play an active role in the community, and have a say in how the project moves forward with its development plans or certain project decisions.

On top of this, some projects will even reward holders with free NFTs from their future collections or 

, which entitles them to a discounted buying price.

Since a majority of the NFT market is attributed to in-game NFTs, most staking opportunities are on play-to-earn gaming platforms such as 

 and others. We’ll cover some of the best platforms for NFT staking later on. 

Similar to cryptocurrencies that may be staked, most NFT projects offer staking benefits in terms of 

The reward rates for many NFT projects increase with the length of time that your NFT is locked in. As a result, NFT owners are encouraged to stake their assets for as long as feasible.

Other systems may display your predicted return in terms of tokens rather than an APY. One example would be receiving 20 of a platform’s native tokens for every day your NFT is staked.

Here are some factors for NFT holders to consider before they stake their NFTs.

As mentioned earlier on, not all NFTs can be staked. Hence, before purchasing an NFT, check whether you’ll be able to stake it for passive income. If not, you’ll want to evaluate whether the art, community or utility is enough to warrant the purchase even if it doesn’t come with passive income opportunities.

This can be checked through the project's documentation, or by asking through the originating NFT project’s official Discord channel.

Most NFT staking protocols impose lock-up periods, which can vary from days to years. During this period, when the NFT is staked, it’s likely that you won’t be able to access the NFT. Hence, you have to choose a period during which you’re comfortable with not being able to access the NFT. However, do keep in mind that the ownership of the NFT still belongs to you as its holder.

Staking platforms will typically display the annual expected return for staking an NFT. Some of them may provide ridiculously high returns for staking, so be wary and 

 to determine whether the platform and its offer are safe and sustainable. 

For certain projects, NFTs of a higher rarity might receive higher rewards. On the other hand, some may distribute equal rewards, regardless of rarity, while others give random rewards.

Right to Participate in Project Governance

Some NFT staking platforms issue their own governance tokens to their holders. This might include 

NFTs are denominated in cryptocurrencies, which will differ based on the network they’ve launched on. Projects on Ethereum are denominated in ETH, while projects on Solana are denominated in SOL.

Hence, users have to be cautious of the volatility in a cryptocurrency’s price. If you predict that Ethereum’s price might soon fall drastically, it might be best to wait before purchasing an NFT denominated in ETH. This is because if you purchase the NFT at a high ETH price, you’ll take a loss when Ethereum’s price comes back down. Should this difference be drastic, the rewards from staking the NFT might be insufficient to recoup your losses.

NFT prices can fluctuate drastically. Since holders usually have to lock up their NFTs for a period when they stake, they need to be wary of any potential NFT price changes. If they’re expecting a huge price increase to occur, they may want to consider selling the NFT for a profit instead of staking it. 

Conversely, by staking the NFT, the asset will be locked, and a holder might miss their opportunity to turn a profit on their NFT. This is especially true if the NFT price increase far exceeds the staking reward.

If you’re hesitant to stake an NFT for fear of 

 and other exploits, you can check through the project’s website to see how much of the total NFT collection is being staked. A higher percentage of staked NFTs is a healthy sign, indicating that other NFT holders are also dedicated to holding their NFTs for a long time.

Hence, there will be a lower chance that other users will unstake or mass sell their NFTs for profit, causing the 

 to tank. A large community staking their NFTs is also representative of the reliability of a collection or NFT staking platform. Hence, users can reduce the worry of fraud.

If you’re holding onto an NFT that qualifies for staking, and don’t have plans to sell the NFT anytime soon, staking can be a great opportunity to put your idle asset to work and earn some rewards. Once the staking period is over and you’ve collected all of your rewards, you can then choose to continue staking once more, or sell the NFT for a profit.

To inventivize users to participate in the NFT staking community, staking NFTs typically rewards holders with the NFT staking platform’s governance tokens. Token holders will be able to vote on the platform’s future direction. The weightage of your vote usually depends on the amount of governance tokens you’re holding.

Some projects have multiple launches, with different NFTs being distributed to the market each time. They tend to reward previous holders by 

 them. With a whitelist, holders can gain access to a variety of benefits, including:

Explained: NFT Staking and How It Works

Compete for 2,500 USDT USDT Every Week

Explained: NFT Staking and How It Works

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards

Compete for 2,500 USDT USDT Every Week

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards