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

Bybit Learn

y00ts is a Solana-based NFT project that allows users to make and sell PFPs. It features 15,000 NFTs in the collection. Find out more about it in this article.

If you're an NFT enthusiast, you've probably picked up on the excitement around y00ts. Want to learn more? You're in the right place. Read on to discover what it is, the team behind it, how to make money with it, how to buy it and much more.

y00ts is a new non-fungible token project that allows users to make and sell PFPs. As a bonus, it's on the 

 blockchain — one of the fastest in existence.

, which is also the team behind the famous 

 NFT collection that recently hit an all-time high price in SOL. 

The y00ts NFT collection is centered on a sheep avatar, with layers of metadata to give y00ts their unique characteristics. There are a total of 15,000 NFTs in this collection, each one available to mint for 375 DUST tokens.

 are pieces of NFT art designed for use as profile pictures. Designs generally feature images of characters or avatars, making them popular among fun-loving internet surfers and individuals who'd rather not use their own photos.

Their status as NFTs differentiates them from other profile picture artworks, which creates serious appeal for collectors within the NFT space. The exclusivity of using an NFT image is exciting enough to entice even celebrities to display them.

Numerous PFP NFT projects within the overall NFT market have come and gone, but this one seems like it's here to stay.

Initially, this Solana NFT project wasn't meant to be y00ts at all. The DeGods developers planned a project called

, which would have been an expansion collection within the DeGods ecosystem. However, the creators realized Duppies didn't go far enough. According to the 

, y00ts aims to be "a common-sense version of copyright & ownership for NFTs."

The founders' vision involves y00ts functioning like a regular copyright, but with a few differences. Typically, one entity handles intellectual property rights. In the case of y00ts, the NFT collection will function as a governing body to do that job in a decentralized manner.

With y00ts, intellectual property (IP) rights aren’t specific to one holder; instead, they’ll exist in a registry listing, where everyone can see who’s approved to use each NFT's IP. Nobody can be sure whether this founding vision will catch on, but y00ts will be a fascinating test of this new licensing implementation method.

The y00ts Solana NFT project is the brainchild of 

Solana project DeGods is a digital art collection, but it's also a community full of developers, creators, artists and other innovators. Dust Labs, meanwhile, is a software company that specializes in benefiting holders by raising the value of NFTs. Considering the success of both DeGods and Dust Labs, it's hard to think of a better founding duo.

The popularity of these NFTs is undeniable, even though the project hasn't yet launched. That's obvious when you visit the website and see that applications for scholarships to mint y00ts NFTs are no longer being accepted.

That popularity is based partly on the success of earlier projects from the founders. Frank and Kevin's transparency on Twitter doesn't hurt, either. And that's not all: y00ts stands out for its sole focus on PFPs and its attempt to change the copyright game. Often, PFP projects are afterthoughts in broader projects. But that's not the case here.

The y00ts store is a marketplace where PFP holders will be able to customize avatar traits. Artists who create them can earn royalties from the sale of the traits they’ve created. Of course, artists can also choose to make the trait free of charge.

It’s important to note that eligibility to use the store won't be automatic. Instead, you’ll need to stake a y00ts NFT for 30 days before you can earn the ⓨ token which will allow you to shop.

Each PFP will be highly customizable. When someone wants to create a custom y00ts trait, they can submit it for approval. There are a few restrictions, though:

Creators whose traits are approved will own the ⓨ (y00ts copyright) of the IP.

There are two notable ways to earn money with ⓨ. Being an artist is the obvious one. Fortunately, non-artists can make bank, too.

y00ts artists' wallets won't be complaining about the numerous ways to make money.

After a trait receives approval, the creator owns the license. That means they can set their prices, decide whether to accept SOL or DUST (the DeGods community token), and earn 5% royalties on every sale. They can even sell the license in its entirety if they want to. It is important to note that the 

 mentioned that the DUST token has no economic value. Instead, the price of the token is determined by the free market. As of now, the price of one DUST token is approximately $1.51.

Artists can also pick the quantity available, giving them control over the supply and, hopefully, creating more demand for rare traits.

The fun doesn't stop there. Creators can also design fashion brands for the collection, and apply them to numerous traits.

Last but not least, artists will have the opportunity to complete paid commissions for y00ts holders.

 the financial fun. Fortunately, enterprising individuals can earn significant cash without creating a single trait.

Users will be able to make traits for six months. After that, the y00ts store will stop accepting them. Once that happens, holders can divide their y00ts into parts. They can then sell the individual items, which will be in limited supply. y00ts holders can also trade for other traits.

Additionally, non-artists can create y00ts clubs — sub-communities based on commissions of custom sets of traits. They only need to pick an artist from the y00ts store. Holders can then register their clubs with ⓨ and add their own logos.

The y00ts developers envision clubs revolving around things like memes and common interests, though y00ts holders will undoubtedly come up with surprises.

All traits within a registered club fall under one y00ts copyright, so a club creator can monetize the entire sub-community. They'll receive royalties from every y00ts sale of a trait from their club. Alternatively, club owners can sell the rights to traits for DUST or SOL.

This is the general breakdown of y00ts' rarity structure, give or take a couple of percentage points:

The launch date for y00ts was supposed to be September 2, 2022, which has come and gone. The delay occurred because, for reasons that are still unclear, Twitter briefly

 of several members of the y00ts team on August 31. Twitter is the primary method through which the y00ts team communicates, and the account suspensions made it challenging to complete all necessary pre-launch tasks.

The new launch date was purported to be Sunday, September 4, at

.” However, the mint was once again pushed back after the team ran into a blocker bug, as 

. If a fortune teller were here, they could tell you the market cap and the most expensive sale; alas, they are not. To get that information as soon as possible after launch, you can check

So far, 200 SOL is the highest sale price these NFTs have reached. There are, however, secondary market listings offering them for prices as impressive as 

. At the collection's highest floor price, its market cap reached almost 2.8 million SOL.

After starting at 124 SOL upon launch, the floor price quickly reached 186 SOL (about $6,138 at the time) within 24 hours, with only a brief dip to 129 a little after 6 a.m. on September 6. The floor is now 136 SOL ($4,243).

 taught us anything, it's that Frank — the founder of both y00ts and DeGods — knows how to lift floor prices. You can see how much DeGods’ floor rose in just the past three months right

With a cofounder like Kevin, who specializes in raising NFT value, it's fair to say that y00ts' floor price could continue to rise. Displays of eager anticipation from those who wish to buy y00ts tokens further emphasize how well things might go.

The first people to get their metaphorical hands on y00ts were

. Minting cost them 375 DUST (currently around $725, though the value was higher at launch), the DeGods system's native token. There were originally 15,000 NFTs available, though many have now been minted.

Despite the fact that scholarship winners got the first chance to mint y00ts, that's not the only way to get them. DeGods holders also had a shot at getting them early. Fortunately, the rest of us have options, too.

Individuals had to apply for a scholarship to get on the “y00tlist” — similar to a presale list — and mint an NFT. If you're reading this article, it's too late for you to get a y00ts scholarship, since the collection has already launched. However, it would have been too late even if you'd attempted it a couple of days before launch. The applications closed on September 2, two days earlier than expected. That was likely an unpleasant surprise to anyone who had heard earlier statements that applications would close September 4.

The scholarship was an interesting choice on the developers' part. Let's talk about how it works.

The team members behind this Solana NFT project say they chose applicants based on merit. In this context, merit means people they believe will actively participate in the community while adding value. Developers expect that a curated community will help y00ts flourish.

Some have worried that "merit" might mean "has a big Twitter following," but that's not the case. People with small follower counts received fair consideration as well.

The scholarship process involved checking to ensure applicants had enough SOL or DUST to mint their project. It also required applicants to verify their social media accounts and answer several relevant questions. Each person had to state which category they fall under: Artist, meme creator, etc.

Anyone who didn't make it to the y00tlist must turn to the open NFT market.

If you can't manage to get a y00ts NFT in the primary market, you can always head to a secondary market.

, Solana’s top NFT market, is a particularly good option. Its biggest draw? Low transaction fees. Magic Eden also has the best attributes filter around.

A new NFT market seems to pop up every second, but sticking with a well-established, trustworthy choice like Magic Eden is wise.

 is another popular platform where you can find these NFTs. Rarible now has a large selection, too.

As stated previously, unless you're a fortune teller, you can't be sure that y00ts NFTs are an excellent long-term investment. But anyone who's paying attention can make an informed guess that they will be. Here's why:

Another reason for high hopes is one that’s too big to include in a bullet list. Dust Labs, the software company behind y00ts, recently 

. The funding round saw investments from Chapter One, Foundation Capital, FTX Ventures, Jump Capital, Metaplex and Solana Ventures. A belief in y00ts' future success played no small part in confidence among these investors.

y00ts has the potential to become a game changer in the NFT PFP world, wildly surpassing other PFP projects. Its novel approach to managing intellectual property rights, singular focus on PFPs and insistence on creating a great community from Day 1 make it stand out in a saturated field.

y00ts NFTs: Creating More Than Just NFT PFPs

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